Spaw...
"If the US had a friendly govt in Iraq that was non-opec and could turn up production of oil it could break OPEC and get oil down to US $15 a barrel. "

ummmm, they wouldn't like that in the oil patch would they? Whether in Texas, the Gulf, Alberta, (particularly the Athabasca Tar Sands), or Saudi Arabia. And I think we all know just how beholden to the ubiquitous oil patch (UOP) the current US administration (and in fact the current Canadian government, shaky Conservative minority that they are, centered in Alberta) is.

Just a complete not-gonna-happen, probably for the best. Oil prices are a double-edged sword. High oil prices encourage conservation-thinking and such good practices, but are inevitably boomtimes in the UOP. All kinds of exploration and extraction, such as the Tar Sands project (which has pretty much cancelled any chance of Canada coming close to meeting our Kyoto protocol targets) and ANWAR, which are not attractive during cheap oil seasons, suddenly become profitable if they can be brought online, and politically saleable because they promise to bring the price down.   

I recall clearer Dubya's first mouthpiece-in-chief, Ari whasisname, explaining that President Bush was not going to encourage oil conservation, "because our lifestyle is a blessed lifestyle". Exact quote. So it's a little difficult not to stick the current situation on him...

W-O