I agree with you that the oil companies are making enormous profits from this. I say let them. The more they price-gouge, the more incentive there is for an alternative energy source. I agree completely. I do not advocate regulation except by the marketplace. The oil companies are thieves and profiteers, but that's the risk you run when you embrace capitalism. You just have to hope that the people running businesses have some kind of conscience. (You might also want to jump out an 8th-story window to see if you can fly.)
And when the alternative energy source takes over, you are going to see these companies collapse.
Sadly, here I have to disagree. By the time they've wrung the last farthing out of the oil-consuming public, the oil companies will have diversified into whatever alternative energy source has been developed. Then they'll proceed to rape us for the next century selling that commodity.
Big Oil knows no allegiance, no borders, and no scruples. It is a virtual nation built on pure greed.
That would be very sad if they did own the next technology. Energy is the blood of the economy, and they are skimming off the top to an obscene point. We are sure to have another recession in the next 2 years, and it will be due mostly to oil and natural gas prices.
But I'm with you. I don't want to see strict regulation and government solutions. Government is twice the thief that these oil scumbags could ever be. However, I would like to see those stupid summer blends consolidated by government. And some help in getting refineries built would be nice. We have so few refineries that if you look at one of them cross eyed, the price of oil jumps $5 a barrel.