Thursday, June 05, 2008

Mr. Gore, call your office! 

The CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson, isn't going to roll over for the global warming religionists.
"My view is that this is so extraordinarily important to people the world over, that to not have a debate on it is irresponsible," he said. "To suggest that we know everything we need to know about these issues is irresponsible.

"And I will take all the criticism that comes with it. Anybody that tells you that they got this figured out is not being truthful. There are too many complexities around climate science for anybody to fully understand all of the causes and effects and consequences of what you may chose to do to attempt to affect that. We have to let scientists to continue their investigative work, unencumbered by political influences. This is too important to be cute with it."
Some shareholders were not happy with Tillerson's lack of leadership on greener energy technologies, but he answered that even 25-30 years from now, even with the development of all the other technologies currently being explored, oil and natural gas would represent 2/3 of the energy market.

Your product is growing so rapidly in price that your revenues from a 25% price increase rise by more than 20%. Why would you want to make less? And of course if Tillerson were allowed to explore new fields and increase supply, what would happen to price?

(Note also from the Economist story (second link) the second law of demand -- prices always rise more in the short run than the long run, as quantity adjustments take time. Another reason why this price spike might be near the end. David Leonhart is experiencing this too.)

(h/t: Mises email list.)

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