Amos, I find myself in much agreement with this NYT column.
As I see it the causes for high gasoline prise, more or less in order of importance are:
Commodity speculation--the current wars are much to blame. And when (or if) the Middle East stabilizes so will speculative pricing;
Increased demand in China & India and other industrializing nations;
The lack of refining capacity in the US. It has been more than 30 years since a refinery has been built here. A friend of mine, a petroleum refinery engineer and designer, had to spend the last years of his career in the middle east rather than close to home;
The lack of will to drill for oil in areas controlled by the country, ie ANWAR and off-shore;
The addition of food products to gasoline, which raises the price of gasoline and the cost of food.

Well, I guess we can't stop foreign growth, but we certainly can control the other factors. So if speculation could reach realistic rates, thus cutting gasoline prices in half, and local drilling and refining could cut about 5%-10%, and ending the ethanol boondoggle can save a couple of percent, we could be looking at gasoline in, say, the range of $2.25. High, but not unmanageable.

And to get gasoline usage down, we need to join France in the use of nuclear; we should be developing more LNG use, and Hydrogen use. And all of these sources should be worked on concurrently as part of a comprehensive energy independence program.