Oil prices are probably going up no matter what we do

…Oil has zoomed to surreal levels, briefly hitting a record high of $145.85 a barrel in trading Thursday morning. That


The International Energy Agency, in a troubling new report, predicts that the supply-demand picture will worsen beginning in 2011, with spare production capacity falling “to minimal levels” by 2013. Global demand will grow from 86.9 million barrels per day this year to 94.1 million barrels by 2013, a sizable jump of 7.2 million barrels, the IEA forecasts.

That could put additional upward pressure on prices. Some analysts and government officials in foreign nations are warning that oil could hit $200 to $250 a barrel, with gas prices shooting to $6 or $7 a gallon. There