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In a previous posting judy willow wrote: "There could be no better or more appropriate time for the ultimate sanction. With just the tiniest bit of guts, we could stop importing oil this very day. We have at least 200 years worth of shale oil in this country and Canada has 1000 years worth of it, and the cost of extracting it has always been given as about $60/barrel."

Perhaps a few facts would help. Using numbers from the June 2004 National Geographic, world oil consumption is about 80 million barrels per day, of which the US produces around 6 million and uses 20 million.

Current US proven reserves of oil represent about 10 years of US production at current rates. Deep water Gulf of Mexico and ANWR, add perhaps another 20 years (again, at current production rates).

Alberta Canada's oil sands, in total, could supply about 200 years of current US consumption. About 10% of that is relatively cheap to extract & process -- $10 per barrel. The rest will, presumably, become increasingly more expensive. But that 10% alone puts Canada in the same proven reserve league with Saudi Arabia, and the total 100% of Canada's oil sands are greater than the entire Mideast by a factor of two.

If I remember from 25 years ago, US western oil shales while in the same general league as Canadian sands, were not considered economical below $40+ per barrel. But that was then, this is now -- I wonder if that question should be reconsidered?

Point is: there will always be "enough" oil, when the price is right to pay for extracting it.

And yes, Mideast oil comes to us with the huge extra "hidden cost" of maintaining a military effort necessary to stabilize the region. But, for sake of discussion, let's suppose the US "eliminated" those hidden costs by eliminating the US military operations in the Mideast. How long do you suppose it would be before Mideast terrorists got the WMD's to make 9/11 look like child's play?

Bottom line: I don't think there is any alternative to defeating international terrorism. In the mean time, the price of oil will rise to where it needs to be to pay for demand -- at least for the foreseeable future.