Gas Cartel In The Making?

Foreign news sources relate that Vladimir Putin is quietly putting together a gas cartel which if formed unopposed will place the U.S. in a vulnerable position energy wise
The ecology movement has held the gas and oil business in a stranglehold for over 35 years, Their influence has resulted in no new exploration for oil and gas in the continental U.S. or off shore, and there has not been a new refinery built in over thirty years. This despite a tremendous growth in population and demand for both oil and natural gas.
History tells us that wars cannot be won without adequate amounts of petroleum products. The Nazi Panzer tanks ran out of fuel in the battle of the Bulge during WWII or the final push by Hitler might have been a success.
All planes and mechanized units need petroleum products. Those of us who are old enough to remember our parents cars having "gas stamps" on the windshields during the 40's, And there are less and less each year,remember the shortage caused by the consumption of our war machine.
This situation can and will happen again if our leadership in Washington does not shrug off the chains of environmentalism and work toward petroleum independence. There is no shortage of untapped supply in ANWAR and offshore Florida and Louisiana. WE cannot fight a war using ethanol and hybrid powered tanks!
The following is a quote from an article written by Ariel Cohen PhD for the Heritage Foundation. It is excerpted from a long article, but helps make my point. The clock is ticking and we had better wake up!
Iran and the other hate America countries are serious and will strike as soon as they are ready. Will we be?

"Oil is a global commodity, but natural gas is not. When it is piped, prices are set as far as 15 to 20 years in advance through long-term contracts. However, liquid natural gas (LNG) is rapidly becoming a worldwide commodity.
By 2010, LNG's share of the world's total gas consumption will double. Thus, price gouging through production quota manipulation may come faster than many experts expect if the GECF becomes a new OPEC and if consumer nations do not unite and flex their muscle. Moreover, Russia and Iran are interested in increasing their geopolitical leverage against the EU in areas which often have little to do with energy.
Major gas producers share another characteristic. Qatar, Turkmenistan, Brunei, and Venezuela, to name just a few, have one feature in common: a democracy deficit. Just like OPEC, the gas cartel will be a formidable global force that can be used to oppose, challenge, and possibly weaken market-based democracies through high prices and wealth transfer. Such a cartel may cut deals with similarly undemocratic large-scale consumers, while forcing the West to pay full price.
Coordinated Global Action Needed
The Bush Administration barely reacted to the Doha meeting. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R–FL), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the Secretary of State that the establishment of a gas OPEC would be a "major and long-term threat to the world energy supply" which the U.S. should "vigorously oppose." Officials express grave concern, but only in private.
As the case of OPEC demonstrates, closing markets to competition, promoting national oil companies (NOCs), and limiting production through a quota system results in limited supply and higher oil prices. Gas, in the long run, will not be different. The United States should open its vast natural gas resources on- and off- shore to further exploration and production and encourage its neighbors in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean to do the same.