Reply #10: I don't put it past oil companies to rip their customers off if they can

[Vinnie From Indy]

get away with it. The problem they must confront is that at some point, if they keep the price high, other forms of energy will be exploited and developed. If that happens, an infrastructure appears that is able to manufacture using economies of scale and the price to produce alternatives is reduced permanently shrinking the oil companies market share. That is, of course, if the claim of peak oil is true and it has been reached. If we have reached peak oil, the price will continue to rise and the oil companies will have to compete more and more with alternative energy producers and they will ultimately lose dominance.