[lewster]

'Been following this thread with interest.

One burning question is un-addressed an un-answered. Many people are screaming for us to tap into wilderness areas for 'our own' cheap oil. Oil is an international commodity, and the price is 'set' every day based on the traders biddings for future contracts.

If you had your own oil well that was strictly for your own use, you would have all of the oil that you wanted for what ever the cost was to extract and refine it.

If you are selling it, would you sell it for less than the current world asking price? I think not!

Being a goldsmith for 30 years, I am intimately familiar with the commodity pricing of precious metals. Using the example above, if you owned your own gold mine and it cost you $250/ounce to extract and process your gold, would you then sell it for a small profit when you know that you can easily get the current world market price of $900/ounce for it? I THINK NOT!

This is by no means a defense of the big oil companies ( I despise them as much as the next guy), but they are no more willing to sell you their 'cheap oil' when the world price is $120/barrel than you would be in the same stuation. Big oil companies are in this game for one reason and one reason ONLY...............TO MAKE $$$$$$$$$$$$$

I don't have any answers to this situation, other than aggresively pursuing alternative energy sources like wind, solar and bio fuels that are NOT food based like corn/ethanol. If this foolish path is continued, we will be choosing between eating and transportation in 20 years. Cellulose based ethanol (look at Brazil) and bio-diesel are attractive alternatives.