Let the market decide our energy sources
May 13, 2013
Thanks to shale gas we have alternatives to petrol, say Robert McFarlane and George Olah.
For the past 40 years, since the Arab oil embargo of 1973, Opec has conspired to set the global price of oil. The rest of the world has simply observed this staggering restraint of trade and done nothing. If western oil companies tried to do what Opec does, they would be prosecuted within hours. The producers’ cartel, however, can get away with it because its members own 78 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and lie beyond our courts.
Here in the US, we have taken heart from the windfall discovery of new oil reserves within our borders without pausing to remember that the price of that oil will still largely be set by Opec.
Financial Times article (posted via United States Energy Security Council website).