Ok, now a perfect time to unleash my conspiracy theory.
Assuming the government wants us to:
a) Have us use less oil
b) Drive smaller cars that get better mileage
c) Not raise taxes to drive the market to do A and B on their own, and not have to accpept that they have disadvantaged any segment of the population.
Does it then make sense for the Government to allow the manipulation of the price of oil beyond the market driven price to much higher levels in order to accomplish a) and b) above?
If the oil companies make obscene profits, the government still collects taxes on that profit. While not as much would be collected as a straight up tax at the pump, stockholders would be benefitting by dividends and higher stock prices which would also be taxed. And with higher gas prices a), b) AND c) are accomplished.
