Oil prices are sky high but the sky is not falling. Improvements in efficiency since the oil price shocks in the 1970s mean that high prices won't cause a repeat of the nasty economic indigestion we suffered then.

Some environmentalists, focused only on the increased incentive to conserve energy, welcome these high prices. They forget that high prices encourage expansion of our most polluting and environmentally risky oil sources -- tar sands, heavy oil and Hibernia.  read more »

Kudos to our federal government if it gets out of Petro-Can, a venture it should never have started. Once they are no longer an investor, the feds may do a better job enforcing environmental rules in the oilpatch. The sale proceeds might constructively be used restoring environmental enforcement, with any leftovers going to remediate federal contaminated sites.