. "We have a president who's like that. And yes it gives the appearance of price gouging when the reserves are not being utilized for their intended purpose. "

Actually I am skeptical about using the oil reserves just to lower the price. The reserves are there to prevent what happened in the Jimmy Carter 70's when we had gas lines and embargos. The reserve is really for serious emergencies and not just to make it easier to drive our cars every day.

In terms of the price of gas...There are alot of things at work here, not the least of which is the supply chain. We haven't built any new refining capacity in over 17 years I think. We use too much and don't have enough to meet our crazy demand. China is coming of age and is a big consumer on the same world market where we buy gas and oil. But mainly I think the shoot up in oil prices has more to do with the jittery market place anticipating disruption of supply. A serious person should not claim that president Bush is creating this shortage for his friends in the oil business. Just not a credible reason.
I admit to being part of the problem by driving my Suburban and towing my boat and running my big outboard too much. I use a lot of fuel torching all those crosses on weekends too.