Time to lock in energy prices?

Matthew Simmons, Texas author and investment banker and the guy who bet oil will hit $200 a barrel next year, feels pretty good.

Oil has doubled to $70 recently as the economy shows signs of life, and “prices do seem poised for the next leg up,” he says on the phone. “By sometime a year or two from now, we’ll look back and say, yeah, prices were really cheap.”

Perhaps the leading proponent of the idea that oil is running out, Simmons probably won’t win his bet, made with New York Times columnist John Tierney. But the prospect for further increases raises the question of whether you should buy future energy at today’s prices, to the extent that you can.

I’ve already recommended buying two years of electricity from Washington Gas Energy Services at 10.8 cents per kilowatt hour.

Baltimore Sun