[Superman]

In the elegant and simplistic view of capitalism, it is sometimes posited that consumers' goals and producers goals are aligned. Similar to the recording industry. But we know that artists want to distribute their art, and record producers want to maximize their earnings. Not necessarily aligned. Here, we have oil companies that intend to maximize their earnings, and we have consumers wanting to minimize their costs. And in between, we have Greenpeace behaving as a friend of the industry and an enemy of the consumer. Usually, these forces increase costs to businesses but those costs will not be realized here until the money is actually spent and the refineries are constructed. Until then, the net impact is high fuel prices. And the group that's holding the bag in terms of making decisions and effecting change......is the group that hopes to maximize its earnings. The oil industry. We pretend that this industry will invest in order to reduce prices, but that's not really the agenda. Investment will wait until prices have risen sufficiently.