Re: Oil prices (was Re: Kyoto, Driving our car (composite reply))

Wayne Hayes (wayne@cs.toronto.edu)
Thu, 11 Dec 1997 12:22:04 -0500


I wrote:
>Michael Lorrey <retroman@together.net> writes:
>>[Oil] prices remained above $23.00 per barrel for oil until the late 80's.
>>While supply may have been high, government policies kept oil prices
>>higher than they should have been.

>Could you please cite these policies and explain how they kept oil
>prices "higher than they should have been"?

I should emphasize that my point was that the absolute price of oil in
the US is lower that it "should" be. Although Michael may be right
that the price was a little bit higher relative to the standard US
price these days, the fact remains that it never got even close to the
price that it would be in a completely free market.