I think the idea is that you will not necessarily choose near zero carbon alternatives such as cycling to work or buying an electric car. Those simply won’t work for most for a variety of reasons. But by bumping the price of gas, it makes people who can’t or won’t choose an alternative very aware of the cost of going anywhere, and causes many to drive more sparingly by carpooling, waiting until they have multiple reasons for trips or choosing not to go out every weekend. For those with deep pockets it is probably little more than an annoyance that won’t change their behaviour, but increasing fuel prices works very well to curb overall demand.
What a pain. They finally ended this in Canada at the end of 2017. All phones sold since then have to be sold unlocked. Any phone sold before that time is likely still locked to a carrier, but that carrier must provide the unlock code for free upon request. Feels like they did this one right, and it is great to be able to keep an old flagship device for 5+ years and travel with it or move services around as needed.
Damn, I played the crap out of this game as a kid. Still remember the first time reaching the Stardock and being wowed by how big it was. But the coolest thing was when I figured out you could escape during the invasion with the 50 tonne Chameleon from the training school.