Besides the crookedness, as I understand it the Enron business model was to have other people actually do the dirty work of developing energy supplies while Enron made piles of cash by being the middleman.  Cheney, Blair, and the FT still obviously have this mindset.  The U.S. and the U.K. are looking at major gas shortages this year or next and do not want to spend the money to develop any alternatives, which as you point out involves delayed gratification.  Neither country thinks that way anymore; the response to high cost or shortages is to look to the outside.

My thought is that the gas shortages are pushing Cheney and Blair to an attack on Iran also.  That is the only place left where they can even theoretically get a designated chump to solve their gas problems.  They tell themselves that if they get regime change in Iran then all they have to do is build the reliquefication terminals in the U.K. and U.S.