Hank,

If ALL energy types were left to the free market, the cheapest sources would be, in order of cost, old hydro, natural gas, and coal. Old hydro is cheap because it was licensed with little or no environmental mitigation. As relicensings come up, costs increase slightly with mitigation, but remains the cheapest. Natural gas is currently cheap for several reasons, but one important point is that environmental mitigation isn't required for it. That could change. Coal is only cheap if air quality doesn't matter. It costs a lot more if pollution abatement is required.

Sure I was speculating about oil. I have no idea what oil would run up to if the US and UK military didn't spend a major fortune maintaining a semblance of stability in the ME production areas. But I speculate that pricing would go up and be volatile.

So what's your idea or plan? Don't develop alternative energy sources and leave it to the free market to react?