The prices are not high enough. We deserve to pay $10.00 per gallon. That way, maybe the stupid American people will finally wake up.
Why, so we can be more like our Socialist European brethren?
We live in a Capitalist society. We deserve to pay market price for our fuel without all the gubmint intervention that has driven up the price by restricting domestic supply. This restriction was accomplished by putting large areas off limits to oil exploration and by restricting refinery permitting. Supply has also been restricted by State and local gubmints when they create specific formulations for specific areas. Last time I checked, gasoline manufacturers were producing something on the order of 97 varieties of gasoline, otherwise known as "boutique blends". This, combined with refineries running at near 100% capacity, has further reduced supplies and has resulted in spot shortages which drives up the price. Have you noticed diesel prices lately? There is a direct correlation between current diesel prices and the gubmint's adaptation of ULS diesel.
Would you be in favor of gubmint adding taxes to the price of fuel so that the magic $10/gallon figure can be reached? If so, why would you give our gubmint, a gubmint that has for decades shown with utter, undeniable clarity, that they cannot responsibly handle the money they take from the citizenry, that much additional revenue to waste on bridges to nowhere and other pet projects?
Oil finds, worldwide, i.e., Brazil, Montana, the Gulf of Mexico, and others, just in the past year, far exceed known reserves of OPEC. Some estimates put domestic known reserves at over a trillion barrels. Oil is not running out. You, at 23, won't live long enough to see the end of oil use. Why then should we be paying a price higher than what the market will support?