Rationing by price

We are just about through winter, and as yet, nothing really bad seems to have happened to the world's energy supplies. Unless, of course, you were among the unlucky folk who keep warm with Russian natural gas and, depending on where you live, were subjected to state blackmail, or diverted gas, or blown-up pipelines, or perhaps reduced flows during one of the coldest winters in recorded history.

On the American side of the globe, however, all was well. An unusually warm winter led to bulging oil and gas stockpiles and somewhat lower prices. In the Mid-East, the Saudis stopped Al Qaeda from blowing up an important oil facility and, despite significant increases in the violence in Iraq and the rhetoric in Iran , for now, oil continues to flow from both countries.

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