Energy: The $22 trillion question

Securing supplies, the boom in Wall Street interest, and what $100 oil means for the economy are all up for discussion at upcoming energy conference.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — How safe are our oil supplies? Where will the new supplies come from? Have high oil prices killed the economy? Are speculative investors responsible for the price runup?

These are all central – an contentious – questions in the world of oil. And they’re all up for debate as leading members of the oil and energy industry gather in Houston, Texas for Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ (CERA) annual energy conference.


Executives from ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, among others, will join United Nations officials, environmentalist, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and a host of other experts for a series of discussions beginning next week.

As the U.S. economy teeters on recession, the impact of $100 oil is being called into question.

While everyone agrees high energy prices are at least partly responsible for the slowdown, their effects are debated. Some analysts say it’s a major factor, others say it’s minimal, as the economy is much less energy-dependent than it was during previous recessions of the 1970s and 1980s.

CNNMoney.com