Yes, the mean and nasty oil companies are defying the law of Supply and Demand (probably one of the few laws that cant be broken) and getting rich at our expense!  Never mind that my need is greater than your need, so I will pay a premium for my gas while you go begging (that could not possibly be my CHOICE!  It has to be price gouging!).  No, it is just those evil Bushies and their Oil cohorts extorting money from the peons of America!

But what does America have more of than any other nation on earth? (Down MM, quit saying idiots)

COAL!  We are filthy rich in it!  We got it coming out of our wazoo!  We cant give the stuff away!  Knock off a few know nothing meddling environmentalist that cant tell a 3 toed sloth from their cousin, and we can power the world!  And it is cheap and with modern technology, clean!  So lets convert to coal!

Arrgggghhh!  But there is the rub!  For as the price of petrol, and more importantly natural Gas skyrockets (natural Gas was a lot harder hit by Katrina than Oil was), Coal is cheap and plentiful!

Or was!  People are now bidding up the price of coal!  Yep!  Not the consumers per se, the buyers (I think you call them middle men).  They see a huge market coming, and so they are bidding it up!

Coal is so plentiful here, and so many mines are abandoned as it is so cheap, that no company can monopolize it and dictate prices.  yet the price is going up!  Why?

The Immutable law of Supply and Demand!

Sneer at the Bushies.  Rail at Big oil. As you drive your cars (does not matter if it is an SUV, all of them burn oil derivatives) and refuse to cut back.  Even as refinery capacity is at the max.  And now crippled.

I hate $3/gallon of gas too.  But I also welcome it.  For Oil Shale is now viable, as is Ethanol, and Coal tar derivatives.  Butthey are not going to be cheap, and the transition painful.

Rejoice Luddites!  You have prevented a nuclear (or as Carter said, Nuclar) Power plant from being built in the last 30 years.  You won!

Now revel in your victory.  Might I suggest a bent?  There is a member here at JU that can advise you very well on them.