I have been following along on this post and was just getting ready to essentiaaly post what Rocky just put down...
Gas refining in this country is the biggest bottleneck in our country's gas supply and is what is currently driving up the price of fuel. Refineries have not been built (much like nuclear plants
because nobody seems to want them in their backyards but everyone b*tches and complains about higher energy costs) and have gotten by only through improvements in refining that have made them more efficient through the years, however, this has only kept pace as demand for fuel has risen in the last decade.
Contary to popular opinion, refineries are running at capacity. It wouldn't matter if OPEC sent a daily gifted boat-load of sweet crude over to the US with a lovely hand-written note and a fruit basket! We wouldn't have any more capacity to refine it and with the lost refining capacity in the Gulf now after Katrina, this situation will not rectify itself permanantly until more refining capacity is added in this country.
I fully agree that if the government truly cared about this issue they would support the building of additional refineries. I personally feel though that we should also strive to lower dependance on foreign oil and the government has not taken a leadership role in this arena.