It is said that since the mid-1980s oil has become a commodity like others, and exhibits noticeable price volatility. How then do oil price fluctuations compare with those of other commodities? To address this question, we examine three aspects of price volatility for two marker crude oils and...

Deregulation on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border has made certain aspects of trade agreements largely superfluous in the near term. It is over the longer term that the impact of the NAFTA will become apparent. To grapple with this issue, simulations are attempted of oil and gas trade...

In specifying third generation models of factor demands, adjustment costs are frequently treated as a function of net rather than gross investment. Such specifications assume replacement investment is frictionless and in equilibrium adjustment costs are zero. Recognition that adjustment costs...

`Oil Equivalence' is widely used to measure total hydrocarbon activity. Natural gas is converted to oil using a fixed factor, usually based on thermal measurement. In turn, expenditures on oil and gas are divided by such `oil equivalence' volumes to define unit costs, especially of reserve...

These comments cover key aspects of Smith's paper. They focus on problems of awarding a central role to carbon taxes, and extend the discussion to harnessing the power of property rights via tradable permits.