Why is gas so expensive?

I don't need to tell anyone reading this that gas prices are through the roof right now. The big questions are "why?" and "how do we fix this?"

Well, according to many of the talking heads in TV land, the issue is basically one of supply and demand. The world demand for oil is at an all-time high, while the production remains constant. In other words, there's an oil shortage.

Another explanation is that our refining capacity, damaged by hurricane Katrina, is only operating at 80% capacity and there is, in fact, a shortage of gas. They usually like to add that no new refineries have been built in decades due to pesky environmental regulations.

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that if there is a shortage of oil or of gas, then we should probably be seeing some indication of it... like gas lines.

The most recent explanation I've heard was that Congress enacted a ban on MTBE, a toxic additive to gas that has been known for more than a decade to pollute ground water.. Since January, refineries have been using ethanol as a substitute. Of course, the reason oil companies have been adding MTBE and ethanol to gas is that they are required to in order to reduce pollution.

Apparently, the oil companies are claiming that there is an ethanol shortage and that is driving up the price of gas. Their proposed solution is to suspend the ethanol requirement. In other words, the oil companies are blaming the government for the high prices, saying that our efforts to protect our environment are the cause of the high prices. Really?

If there were such a huge ethanol shortage, I would think it would be more widely reported and independently confirmed. Further, a shortage of ethanol... and resulting higher prices... would cut into big oil's profits. Last time I checked, big oil is doing better than the rest of us. Besides, I still haven't seen any gas lines.

So, it doesn't seem to be an oil, gas, or ethanol shortage are work here. Nor is the high price attributable to "market forces." Well, not at least FREE market forces. No, the currently high price of gas is part of a campaign by big oil to force the American government and people to abandon our environmental regulations, so they can do business unfettered. Big oil is exercising it's monopolistic (oligopolistic?) power over us and is trying to blackmail us.

Of course, the only reason big oil feels free to blackmail us is that they own the Republican party.

UPDATE - Yikes, just found some independent confirmation of big oil's intentions to manipulate gas prices... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12652455