Regarding the energy issues, the US is in much better shape that the EU. The US is not likely to need any LNG, more or less Russian LNG, as independents such as Chesapeake, Devon, Petrohawk, XTO and others have done a fabulous job of growing US nat gas production. We could probably physically become an exporter over the short term if we wanted to, but that obviously won’t happen, Meanwhile, Europe relies on Russia for over half of their natural gas supply. Given that this is the incremental fuel for powering industry and power plants, Europe is likely to be very disadvantaged vs. US natural gas in the coming years. A bigger move to nuclear is definitely in order there.

This is very different from oil, where we remain clearly highly dependent for transportation fuels. Even though they are often said in the same breath, the oil and gas industries have striking differences.