I think this oil price issue has been in the works for a while. Democrats jumped on this issue very early even when gas prices were not that big of a deal. I do believe OPEC and the Middle Eastern nations have been planning this for a while. They cannot stand Bush.
The single biggest problem in refining and marketing is the requirement for all the different gasoline formulations to satisfy air concerns. We could solve this problem overnite by specifying just two formulations nationwide; one for summer and one for winter, instead of the many we have.