This is the oil price history.

Obviously, this gyration has very little to do with the known amount of world reserves, the perceived supply of oil still in the ground, overall demand, or the real costs of production. We were not using seven times less oil in 1998 than we are now.

The oil prices now are high out of fear. That's pretty much the whole story. Look at this chart.

We are dependent on imports, and the prices charged for them.

There is strife in Nigeria, loons running Venezuela and Iran, war in Iraq, general unrest in the Middle East, and China vastly increasing its demand of petroleum products. With the exception of Canada, most of our import sources are on pretty thin ice. The slightest hiccup, like that executive being killed in Nigeria, or a pipeline being sabotaged anywhere, can make the price jump a few bucks.

You aren't going to change that cycle by telling people that we have identified vast new sources of oil that nobody is going to get to drill for until our economy is really, REALLY in a bind. And of course, then it's going to be too late to bring the flow up to speed.

You're right. It isn't about the caribou. It's about the Democrats not wanting to lose on this issue, because when the prices come down after domestic supplies are released, they know damn well who's going to be the goat.

Hillary had the incredible nerve to stand up and say that the Alaska reserves are useless because they would take ten years to bring fully on line, after her husband had vetoed the use of those reserves ten years ago.