Touchstone

A more immediate threat than climate change, the energy dilemma inspires reclusive multi-billionaire Lyman Dysart, “The Stockholder,” to aid in the development of controlled nuclear fusion. One plasma constituent of the patented process, ultra-scarce helium isotope found in quantity only in Luna, necessitates expensively strip-mining the lunar regolith. Semi-panic ensues in the minds and wallets of OPEC and the Vonex cartel led by Belkin Reichert, who uses behind-the-scenes political influence to suborn fusion’s advent by promoting solar energy, and then nationalization of the newborn industry. The battle of wills and tactics climaxes when Dysart attempts to defeat U.S. nationalization by holding hostage his lunar mining venture, and citing fusion as, "A plasma containment shell, at its heart a dervish of semi-vacuum burning so furiously it emulates temperatures reigning at the center of the Sun, yet gives forth no light, but presumes to light the world in a beneficent, utopian glow."