Oil and gas industry executives had paid $50 each to hear a speech from the National Petroleum Council, a group that advises the White House on oil and gas matters.
Rumour had it that a new joint energy policy from the Canadian and American governments was coming down the pike.
At first, the speech just seemed odd.
"Without oil, at least four billion people would starve," one of the speakers earnestly told the crowd. "This spiral of trouble would make the oil infrastructure utterly useless."