My little energy talk

A few days ago I was a party and ran into an old 'advisee' from the U of M. He has been working in the financial market since the late 80s. We started to talk and I asked him about the impact of $4.00 per gallon has on the market. And, shortly I asked his opinion about the current energy issue. This is a bulleted list of main ideas from our conversation.

• $4.00 per gallon is here to stay
• US is using 3 to 5% less gasoline than same time last year..."the market is working
• drilling (having more drilling rights) will NOT decrease price per gallon for a long time, if ever...
• expanding drilling rights does not guarantee that oil companies will explore as that will cost billions...
• why put money into exploring if you can make billions selling current supply of oil
• NIMBY
• we still have access to oil...no long lines at the gas station
• China is having an enormous effect on the global petro market
• ethonal is not the answer
• ethonal decreases your gas mileage
• ethonal is having an effect in food price
• what will happend to all those hybrid car batteries once they die?
• 2010 is an important as that is when US auto factories can be fitted to produce hybrids
• No more SUVs from automakers
• if you have a SUV, it's your until it dies...no one wants one!

Please note this is base on my recollection...I could be wrong or misheard what he said.