So much nonsense and misinformation on the TV and in the papers.

Who is responsible for prices? We all are. A matter of demand and supply, with speculation in the futures market to top it off.
Prices in the U. S. are well below European levels, mostly because taxes are low. Comparisons in thread 74599, 22 July: Gas prices
Prices have dropped a bit as people are learning to conserve and are demanding less, but they will never return to the levels of 10 years ago.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in China, India, southeast Asia, South America, etc. Everybody trying to secure supplies.

1. Opening up drilling won't help for 5-10 years, the necessary lead-in time to develop new fields, logistics, transport, pipelines, personnel, etc. And oil men know that there will be disappointments as well as successes.

2. 'Pie-in-the-sky' grandiose guesstimates of billions of barrels available in the Arctic must be proven by the drill; permeable reservoirs, proper thermal regimens other factors not yet proven- even with success 5-10 years before the petroleum reaches your local filling station. The US Geological Survey estimates must be taken with a salt dome of salt. Also remember that the US and Canadian shelves are limited; Russia and several European nations also have legitimate claims to large parts of the Arctic.

3. Canada, the No. 1 supplier of oil and natural gas to the U. S., will probably be able to double tar sands production; Saudi Aramco, the No. 2 supplier, with the largest known liquid reserves, will increase production a little, but they will not mortgage their future by giving the oil away. Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates, are rapidly building an industrial base. Mexico, No. 3, has offshore possibilities that look good, but unless the Americans fully implement a free trade zone, they might sell elsewhere (this new oil also is 5 years or more in the future). Nigeria, No. 4 supplier to the U. S., seems to have pretty good reserves, but the politics are unstable (Maybe Bush should have moved on them and left Iraq alone).