[jjackson]

"lead us toward reducing consumption."

High prices will take care of this.

They will also stimulate increased supplies.

Thank goodness for the invisible hand of the market place.

[Dog Gone]

Prices do effectively ration demand, but politicians can't help but tinker with that mechanism, too. You see, it's not "fair" that people with smaller incomes can't afford to buy as much gasoline as others.

Which inevitably leads to calls for price controls and rationing...

The fact is that the politicians and special interest groups are responsible for causing this situation and then they're going to try to impose their boneheaded solutions, when the real solution was for them to butt out in the first place.