The AJC ran this story from Associated Press:  http://www.ajc.com/business/content/shared-gen/ap/Finance_General/Gas_Demand.html?cxntnid=biz051607e

Here's a sample:

"It is time for Congress and the administration to do their part to help alleviate the pain consumers are feeling at the pump," said Mark Cooper, director of research for the federation.

Damn right it is!

But, not the way THIS guy thinks.  The article continues...

At Wednesday's hearing, he plans to call on the federal government to provide greater oversight over oil industry market practices, create strategic refinery and product reserves, and enact policies that promote reduced oil consumption.

How about this instead, folks:

GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY!!  "...oversight of oil industry market practices..." my butt!

A later comment points out a simple fact about gas production:

[Charles] Drevna [executive vice president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners' Association] said refiners have been steadily expanding their existing facilities, adding the equivalent of one new refinery a year, on average, every year for more than a decade. That's a cheaper and faster way to expand refinery capacity than going through the multiyear process of trying to win a permit to build new plants, he said.

Did anyone notice that he DIDN'T say expansion was BETTER than building new refineries?  It's not.  Anyone who has ever owned a house or grown a business office knows that adding on is a messy, suboptimal process, especially when you're talking about updating technology.  But it's faster and cheaper for the gasoline producers because our darling government already has TOO MUCH oversight!

GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY!!!

How expensive will gas get when "gummint" makes it "cheap"?  How expensive did power get in California a few years ago when "gummint" forced consumer prices down, but found out that, like dear old Scotty, "They canna change the laws of physics!"  Can you say "Black out"?  I knew you could.