Those big prices per gallon aren’t coming from massive demand and dwindling supply, but from speculation that could drive oil to $200 per barrel, and who knows where the price of a fill up goes after that?

The answer to that right now may be “as high as the oil companies and speculators want it to go.” We as Americans are captives to the need to drive everywhere. Those who can profit from it demonstrated they will unabashedly loot the public for as long as they are permitted to get away with it.

Ed Wallace, auto expert and Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist, says there is no gas shortage:

Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early 1990s, which is remarkable considering the nation’s refineries have been cutting back on the production of gasoline because their margins have declined.

In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year. Ronald Bailey of Reason Online has pointed out that worldwide production of oil has risen 2.5% in the first quarter, while worldwide demand has grown by only 2%.

So what is going on here? Why would our Energy Secretary say there’s a supply and demand problem when none exists? Why would he say that speculators have little or nothing to do with the incredibly high price of oil and gasoline, when it’s clear they do?

Good question, especially with Wallace going on to quote the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson,  as saying, “The record run in oil prices is related more to speculation and a weakening dollar than supply and demand in the market.”

That speculation pushed $241 billion into oil futures since 2000, not coincidently the year George W. Bush, oilman and friend of Saudi oilmen, won the White House (yes, won, recounts in Florida by reporters said Bush beat Gore, deal with it).  Meanwhile, refineries cut production, and reserves still accumulate, indicating reduced demand.

You’re being looted every time you pump gas, with the warm approval of Goldman Sachs, Big Oil, the Bush Administration and friends. Could be a good time to ask your US Senator or Representative why prices continue to go up while demand goes down and gas supplies increase.