Quote:
Originally Posted by aklim
Do you honestly see that as a likely event? IOW, OPEC suddenly flooding the market? Not talking about a $10 a barrel drop. Maybe if the price of oil crashed tomorrow to say $50 a barrel, I might worry about investing in this company.
You understand the difference between "can" and "will", right? What have they done lately that convinces you that they "will" be more useful in the project than out? Sure, the govt "can" be more useful than just getting out of the way. If you think it is likely to happen, you might consider grafting wings on a pig and see if it "can" fly. Probably as much chance of it happening. You seem so optimistic that the govt can do this and can do that. Maybe in Europe under different circumcisions. What have they done HERE that convinces you that they are more likely to help than hinder? The gas tax where 46 cents on the dollar is spent on non-road related projects (something that wasn't supposed to happen)? The Tobacco Settlement that is spent on who knows what besides Tobacco Cessation Programs? The raiding of caches of money for other pet projects?
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Oil prices can crash for a variety of reasons. I don't think SA has enough capacity to cut oil prices in half just on its own, but say if they max out their production after the world starts going into a recession because of high oil prices, I can see oil prices dropping by half. This would wreck havoc on the entire alternative energy industry which is still in its infancy.
You seem to cite some failures or shortcomings of the govt to convince me that govt is always useless and we'd be better without it. It doesn't work that way. I can easily see them passing a bill calling for an oil price floor or tax incentives for alternative energy, just like what the oil industry receives. That's really all they need to do to play a constructive role and they've done this sort of thing many times before and successfully. It's the various lobbies and special interests that are the real problem.