Clarification on Conpsiracy Posting

It seems I may have erred or at least miscommunicated in my previous comments about oil. First, I don't want to seem as though I am attempting to protect or support "big oil." Creighton pointed out a good article from the NY Times about a legal loophole that the oil companies are grossly exploiting. They are certainly not innocent little angels. Also, it is definitely true that they influence the price of oil and gasoline. Again, it's all about supply and demand curves. They (and OPEC and Russia and China and Joe Shmoe producer who has an old oil well on his property) all contribute to the overall global supply of crude. My intention was to counter some liberal blogs and anyone who might catch wind of their theories and explain that I don't believe they (big oil companies and politicians) single-handedly have control over the global market price of oil and they are now lowering it to their advantage just before the election.

At the risk of stirring up more controversy, it should be noted that alternative fuels are also highly subsidized. In addition, I find it ironic that the federal government is giving tax credits for the purchase of hybrid automobiles even though the market is dominated by foreign car manufacturers. So, one could look at it as though our government is subsidizing the profits of Toyota and Honda. (And before I receive 100 comments on how that's simply Detroit's fault, it is worth noting that GM is ahead of its foreign rivals in its production of E85 automobiles and is also close to a clean-diesel platform not to mention their billion dollar bet on hydrogen.)