Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (95235)	1/14/2005 12:55:05 PM
From: Bridge Player	Respond to of 794046

<<Consumers respond to price signals. Even in the low-price years from 1985 to 2000, they remembered the high cost of oil in the 1970s and adjusted. Utilities stopped burning oil to generate electricity and opted for coal or nuclear power or taxpayer-subsidized wind and solar power instead. Cars became more efficient (at least until the SUV came along in the late 1990s). Homeowners installed superior insulation and switched from oil to natural gas heat. In this new era of expensive oil, the process of substitution will accelerate. It may reach too into growing markets such as India and China. As it does, oil in the ground may become less valuable. And we will move closer to the day when M.A. Adelman's ultimate prediction comes true: As consumers substitute other energy sources for oil, oil in the ground will gradually become less valuable and producers will gradually lose interest in searching for more. The world will never run out of oil. It will just stop using it. When that happens, the world will never know and never care how much oil remains in the Earth.>> Exactly so. And the single most important factor in this forecast coming true will be the forces of free market economics, and not the increased interference of governments in those markets that is so hotly desired by the left.