I saw an economic expert discussing this topic. There's no excuse for increasing oil prices. There is physical data that since oil has been on the increase, Americans have actually been cutting back on their driving habits. It was enough of a cutback to be considered significant. So, LESS DEMAND. And, the oil supplies are at an all time high. So, MORE SUPPLY.
MORE SUPPLY + LESS DEMAND <> INCREASING PRICES
The only thing that was offerered as an excuse was that as third world countries are becoming more developed, there need of oil is increasing, so maybe what we aren't buying, other countries are happy to take.
Our dependence on foreign oil is crippling this nation. It's funny now when people say we went into this war because of oil, because us Americans haven't seen any of it. And why aren't we trying to get Mexico to start drilling there? There's a huge abundance of untapped oil in Mexico. And our president doesn't seem to stress the importance of alternative fuel. There's no big incentive to switch to hybrid cars. If gov't would offer some sort of tax break on buying a hybrid, more people may jump over, and bring down the overall cost of these cars. I think a newer, more efficent and cleaner fuel/energy technology is on the near horizon (be it solar, wind, electric, hydro, earth core), probably sometime during the ends of our lives, and these countries are trying to get the most for oil while its still valuable and before it becomes an obsolete fuel method.
All of this is just my opinion, and what I've heard at the water cooler, I'm certainly no expert on govt or the intricacies of big oil, but something just doesn't smell right from an outside perspective.
