.......and some Bean Counter bashing.
When Bill Gates did not write two checks to both Clinton or Dole, Clinton had Janet Reno burn him and Microsoft had to spend a bunch of money. Thinking that Lame Duck GWB has any more vested interests in Big Oil than his Political Opponents is laughable, Gore's family and other big political families got rich off investing in big oil too. I would bet my last bottle of Gunnies that Vanguard has some of my 401K invested in Oil.
Political finger pointing is basically a waste of time and who cares any more, it won't bring down the price at the pump, the only thing that will bring the price down is more Oil supply and more competition from other sources.
Like any commodity when the supply is short the price goes up and suppliers like OPEC get greedy.
But, lets look at the situation such as a Cold Hearted Bean Counter who would slit his own mother's throat to save or make a buck:
Oil costs $150 a barrel at the dock at Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, but you can drill and pump it for $50 a barrel at a new well in North Dakota, What would this bean counter do? DRILL

Even if he has to do it responsibly
As the Bean Counter is honing his knife to cut costs, at first he see the light and lets logic influence the decision and this works for a while. Later on he pulls out his knife and starts honing it again and then he gets greedy and drills more wells until the price starts to drop, when it drops to $100 a barrel at the docks over seas is he going to cry, hell no, he will keep drilling wells and start laying off secretaries and closing marginal stations to cut costs.
So, why can't the greedy cold hearted bean counter drill and eventually bring down the price of fuel at the pump?
We have in addition to our Government Idiots, Idiots who file law suits to stop oil drilling, stop nuclear power, stop wind power, stop solar panels on residential roofs, stop hydro-electric dams because some fish may swim up from the ocean and spawn above the tree line at 10,000 feet. Why do these Wacko Lawyers who could not get a job reviewing garbage hauling contracts for municipalities do what they do? Their fellow Lawyers, the Government including Federal, State, County, and Local along with the public have not run them out of town and backed politicians who have the guts and desire to put this obstruction practice to an end.
As much as I want technology to progress and come up with new energy sources, we can drill or watch our economy die and enter a new era of Dark Ages.
Steve