2-5 years is a long time in the energy market. I don't know what will happen to worldwide demand, and I don't know what political issues might develop. It might stay flat for a few years, but I'm betting it will go up sooner than that. I just have trouble believing that oil will be below $100 in 5 years.

Unfortunately not in my neck of the woods--Bush's subsides or no longer..........

The days of competition or supply and demand as a serious determinate of priceing may be ending. Or perhaps it might be better to state becoming less of an end priceing component from now on.

It is going to become a more of a scrabble between taxes and suppliers wants. The end consumer will have no control other than reducing usage at best. Normally inclusive taxes on fuel are on a percentage basis of the selling costs or will be if not already. So what is kind of pre ordained is the ideal of governments really wanting to see lower prices.

I really think inflation is landing with a vengance reciently at least here. It looks like people on fixed incomes may be hit pretty hard. By late fall the verdict should be in. There may be a somewhat newer approach to business by almost monopolies now.

Last week for example Bill Gates purchased 43 billion dollars worth of Canadian National Railways . The concern in general of too high a percentage of commerce being controlled by far too few seems to have more traction reciently.

One of my neighbours has a net worth of about 750 million now and expects to broach a billion sometime during the next two years. I have little doubt he will fail..

To my simple way of thinking there is a more aggressive game of monopoly underway than has existed in the past. It may turn out that I am wrong but if not it could become punishing. This may be an area we really need our governments to apply limits to. At the same time I feel they may not.