The current crisis has zero / nada / zilch to do with supply and demand. There is an abundant supply of oil. The pricing is a bubble that the oil companies are happy to ride out. They keep making bogus claims about shortages due to refineries and trouble offloading tankers and other balderdash.

Do these politicians think that an influx of oil supply will do anything at all? The drilling companies will take that oil and sell it on the open market and get whatever they can for it? The oil companies are not going to take oil they can sell for $140 a barrel and instead decide to sell it at the pumps for a discount or anything. They will seek the maximum price they can get.

Why do you think Exxon is selling it's retail stores? The money is in drilling. They drill and refine for the same $20 or so a barrel in costs that they have for years and then sell it for $140 a barrel. The local retailers are making 10% at best. Wait until the next profit statement for Exxon and Chevron. The world will be astounded.

The tourist and resorting industry/lobby.

Okay, so Arnold is now the voice of rational gas and energy policy? I guess this is the "Terminator 2" version of Arnold, considering that he pretty much single-handedly popularized the civilian use of the Hummer after Gulf War I.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/auto/car-guide-2004/hummer.asp

To his credit, he has sworn off the gas-guzzling machines in recent years, but still - might we not have burned up so much gas in the last ten-plus years if so many people with compensation issues hadn't bought those 7-mpg behemoths? Maybe other SUVs might not have seemed "reasonable" in comparison, but it is not an exaggeration to say that Arnold led the way in over-consumptive vehicles in the 1990s.

"The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" - William Blake

"Hasta La Vista, baby" - Arnold Schwarzenegger

For those of us not on a first-name basis with politicians and their publicists, please note the following surnames and do NOT use the overly-familiar given name:

Senator Clinton

Douchebag Limbaugh

McCain says we have to tap into our "...vast...oil reserves"?!?!?

If we, the U.S of A., have vast reserves, why have we EVER bought oil from a foreign source?

See, eventually these politicians get so speech-addled that the snake bites it's tail and the result is incoherent nutty talk.

Like when they "misspeak". Dirty liars, most of 'em, lie to your momma's face.