Many years ago, Thomas Edison did some research on a desert plant(forget the name) that yielded a sap which was a good source of natural rubber. In addtion, the palnt also produced a good grade of gasoline (when properly refined).Why can’t they get the genes responsible, and make a transgenetic variety of this (say with common corn). Then we could all thumb our noses at OPEC, and relegate the Middle East to what it originally was-a big sand pile, with no influence in world affairs!