1880s rural self-reliance → the last generation that produced its own food, fuel, heat, and power.

The engineered loss of autonomy → how petroleum, policy, taxation, and monopolies eliminated self-sufficient local fuel production.

Diesel & Ford’s original plan → engines meant to run on vegetable oils and alcohol fuels grown by farmers.

The quiet war on independence → Spindletop price shock, alcohol taxes, Prohibition, Rockefeller, railroads, banks.

The return of local energy sovereignty → modern sensors, AI, micro-refineries, blockchain, edge computing.

Range Sustain Tech as the modern embodiment of that lost autonomy:

• waste-heat Bitcoin mining

• decentralized heating

• radiant floors heated by miners

• open-source rural innovation

• ranchers producing their own energy again

• a “new frontier” of independence using 21st-century tools.