Glenn Reynolds links to this great WIRED article about a huge oil find deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico. One of the most consistent idiocies of Congress is pandering to public opinion and media posturing over high oil prices and excessive oil company profits. The WIRED article reveals flaws in both ideas. The extraordianry effort and expense of finding oil nowadays requires the potential for a high payoff and an oil price high enough to make looking for oil worth the trouble. All during the nineties when we had relatively benign oil pricing exploration dwindled. Then when supplies got tight everyone complains the oil companies are not expanding supplies. High prices bring on discoveries and also make environmentally friendly energy sources more competitive. I suggest we cut the pay of Congressmen and raise the pay of oil drillers.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the middle east runs out of oil and prices explode over $100 a barrell just as the USA finds billions of barrels on its own territory. The balance of payments problem would disappear as fast as all those Saudi financed mosques.
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