Why is the American public at the mercy of the oil companies?What can we do as a group to stop high gas prices

Simple: elect people to Congress who will open up the North Slope, offshore sites, and Federal lands to drilling. If the supply goes up, prices will come down. Incredibly, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell almost single-handedly succeeded in killing a bill to permit drilling on the ANWR; the Federal taxes that would have been collected amount to billions of dollars. We are paying something like $25,000 per year per caribou so that none of them have to look at an oil rig!

We need the gas to survive right now. We need to be able to get to work, etc, etc. I dont feel there is anything we can do to stop the high prices of gas because the oil companies know that they can get away with charging that much because we need it.

You know how recently there was the world wide 'lights out for an hour' deal?. The big gas hike for summer is Memorial Day weekend and It was either in 04' or '05 that people advertised and encouraged not filling up that weekend or the Friday leading into it and it made a huge impact on gas companies and the next week they dropped their prices lower than they had been the week before the holiday. Maybe pushing for something like that would make a difference again?!

Supply and demand.
Increase supply by opening up areas where there is more oil and gas such as offshore and the Arctic. Put reasonable environmental limits, but we need to explore more areas here. Increase the supply of fuels other than oil, by assisting with the development of clean coal for use in transportation. We have more than enough coal, but need to convert it into a cleaner liquid fuel. Stop the ethanol subsidies because it is not efficient and instead invest them elsewhere. Lower the sugar subsidies (sorry Florida sugar growers) so that we can import more of Brazil's sugar based ethanol which does not jeopardize our food supply. Invest in more refineries in places where they need jobs and reduce the regulations for a period so more refineries can be built and start earning a return on the huge investment it takes to build them. For other energy uses, bring back safe nuclear power, again in places where they need jobs and away from huge population centers. Solar, probably the best, is becoming more affordable with the advances in the cells.

On the demand side, increasing use of natural gas (which we have plenty of). Give tax incentives to convert more cars and trucks to using nat gas and more fueling stations. Buses are alreading using it.
Use more hybrid cars and give incentives for the car companies to sell even more of them. Increase higher gas guzzler taxes for those SUVs that are well below reasonably gas mileage (sorry Detroit).
Reduce the costs of refining gas, by making one standard gas blend, instead of 50 different formulas for each state (sorry California) and for all the different seasons.
Keep giving subsidies to use mass-transit (stop giving corporation's a tax deduction for corporate paid parking unless they car-pool).
Stop blaming the U.S. publicly traded oil companies. They are owned by individual shareholders and pension funds (with individual beneficiaries). They pay huge taxes and employ thousands of educated people who are highly trained. If you are mad at executive compensation, that is a separate topic

You can always start your own oil company and charge less.

You can not use their products.

You can get a job at Exxon, work your way up to President and then lower prices.

Open up the North Shore of Alaska
Open up the West Coast and the Gulf for oil

Send those that oppose the new drilling to France

Yes Don't Buy Exon / Mobel Any other but not Exon / Mobel
It Will Drive ther cost down Don't buy till they get back down to $ 2.00 Per Gal --- Its all over the Internet
Tell your Friends!!!!!!!!!!!

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