Russ,

Do you believe that this energy crisis is real? Obviously with India's and China's need for more oil there will be more competition for resources, just as with Japan before WWII. But I've heard that there's more than enough oil in Alaska alone to meet US needs for the next couple of centuries. Even if this is true, however, I believe that we should nonetheless take the necessary measures to develope cleaner more cost effective alternative energy sources and reduce our need for oil.

I remember the gas lines of the seventies. At first when I heard that the oil wells were about to go dry, like many people, I believed that there might be some credence assumming oil was a finite resource. But, one day, I watched some big oil executive being interviewed and you could see that he was all but laughing as he explained the "crisis." After that and in the intervening years, I believed that it was just a contrived "crisis" to jack up the price. I believe $100/barrel oil will result from a similar contrived "crisis."

Joe