On the other hand, maybe it's better to pay highish prices until the others have used up their reserves, before you start on your own. ;-) Depends on whether people believe viable alternatives to oil really are just around the corner or not.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
