A lot of blame has been laid at the feet of "big oil" for artificially inflating the price of gas. Well, oil companies in the refinining business are starting to get squeezed between the high price of oil on one side, and the threat of demand destruction on the other side. The resulting tight margin means that if oil continues to increase in price as it has in the last five years, the price of gasoline has nowhere to go but up, and much more steeply than it has so far.

This might be a good time to rethink our transportation and land use policies.

The chart above is based on California Energy Commission histroical record of gas prices, and the Department of Energy's historical record of crude oil prices.