Jerry, i am having problems with mail, but i think that you have challenged nwoke's argument by saying that coal is not a perfect substitute for oil. I think your reasoning was based on the physical differences between the natural resources; that is, you were not saying that at a certain price coal would indeed be substituted for oil. Coal simply cannot be substituted for oil in several uses. OK but does Nwoke's argument depend on coal being a perfect substitute? I had the sense that Nwoke was arguing that coal represented the intensive margin in energy production and that high cost coal enters into the price of oil. I don't think coal has to be a perfect substitute to play this role. Do you find this argument suspect? I don't know whether it's correct, but I don't think you were speaking to the idea. Moreover, to the extent that there are no substitutes for the exhaustible resource of oil, wouldn't there be a stronger possibility of monopoly profit and thus absolute rent in the production of oil? so i do not understand your point. lastly, there is the question of differential rent (both the Ricardian and additional Marxian kind) that may be enjoyed the Saudi rentier state. at any rate, if you would like to elaborate exactly what your criticism of nwoke's argument is, I would appreciate it. at any rate, the energy market is obviously exceedingly complicated. you will not be surprised that i think there may be something very important in how grossmann attempted to make sense of the struggle for the control of raw materials in the context of the all important tendency towards breakdown, but this raises another set of issues. i hope my email is working when i get home. Rakesh --
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