As crude oil prices smash the $135-a-barrel barrier for the first time, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia say they will take action to protect their state-owned oil companies.

“If oil prices keep going up, it is simply not in any country’s best interest to keep subsidizing these prices indefinitely,” says Peter Gastreich, a UBS oil and gas analyst, in the Financial Times.

The IEA forecast for a daily increase in global oil production of 31 million barrels by 2030—a 37% jump—sounds like pure fantasy. Do the facts support it? Are big oil companies already searching for that future oil and finding it? Do they have plans to produce it?

It is always impolite to ask a lady her age. But the oil bull market is certainly no lady, besides which, we know she is about ten years old.

Who cares if oil is bullish or bubbly? Prices are going up, baby. Why ask why?

With the oil price at near-record highs and Shell and BP declaring record profits last week, there are various truckloads of drivel about the oil majors being ruthless profiteers doing the rounds at the moment. But who’s really raking in the money?

I don’t believe nuclear energy is the solution to this problem, at least not in its current form. The dirty secret of the nuclear industry is that we still don’t have an adequate waste disposal system. While carbon dioxide pollution may let New Yorkers grow palm trees, radioactive waste will kill you.

So a few weeks ago I wrote an article bashing the McCain gas-tax holiday plan. My conclusion was that the gas-tax did absolutely nothing to fix the reason that gas prices are higher. And in the end, all it would do is spur more demand for gasoline, meaning prices would go even higher.