Nobody is to Blame

The thing about the current oil crisis that is really frustrating is that no one party is to blame. Congress points to Big Oil who points to Middle Eastern leadership who points to the attitudes of consumers who blame speculators. Oil prices are at their current level due to a multitude of causes and no one party is to blame, but a congress of policy, attitudes and actions.
Perhaps the easiest parties to blame are the Big Oil companies. With record profits (close to $500 billion combined annually among the six biggest companies) and billions of dollars in tax breaks, Big Oil companies are an easy target for American consumers who find themselves in dire financial times.
In general, these companies respond to allegations of price gouging by pointing to the rising costs of production. From exploration to actually getting crude out of the ground, all operations in the production of oil have become more expensive in recent years. The easily accessible and exploitable deposits of oil are all but gone, and methods of finding and acquiring more difficult deposits come with increased cost. Further, Oil companies point to restrictive policies of oil producing countries, namely the member nations of OPEC.
During the 1973 oil crisis, OPEC nations utilized "The Oil Weapon" to punish nations who supported Israel in the Yom-Kippur War. The United States and other countries in direct support of Israel were targets of an embargo. OPEC nations cut production by 25% and this lessened supply resulted in a dramatic rise in prices.
The precedent of Middle Eastern oil producers underproducing in order to raise prices is the source of much recent criticism. Big Oil companies and Western governments accuse, mainly Saudi Arabia, of under-producing in order to keep worldwide prices high. Saudi Arabia, however, responds that worldwide demand has increased with the increased industrialization of China and India to such a level that even running at capacity, producers are unable to meet global demands.
United States consumers are notorious for their gas guzzling habits. Everyone knows the oft-quotes statistics about the ridiculous ratio of United States consumption to production as well as judgments against the uneconomical gas usage of SUVs and pleasure cruisers. But many American consumers are reluctant to cut back on their consumption when subsidies are offered in other countries that effectively render conservation financially unnecessary.
Indeed, in order to keep the prices of oil low in some countries, subsidies are offered. Unfortunately, this prevents the harsh lesson taught by painfully high prices, and demand continues to rise in these countries. Subsidies allow trends toward conservation to remain unnecessary and out of control demand to persist.
Other experts point to financial speculation as a source of the high cost of crude oil. Oil is traded in futures markets in which the right to buy crude at a set price at a future date is bought and sold. Some contend this practice, though no actual crude is sold, drives up the worldwide cost of oil completely independently from actual supply and demand. In a written testimony before Congress, financial expert Michael Masters contended that futures markets created a "demand shock" that results in inflated prices.
Many people believe that above all causes, the Iraq war is the source of high oil prices. Following the invasion in 2003, oil production dropped from more than 3 million barrels per day to just around 1 million barrels per day in 2006.
Honestly, any party involved can point to a host of other source of the price of gas and make a good case for why they are not responsible, but another party is. A concerned citizen out to discover The Truth behind gas prices would inevitably walk in an unending web between entities as convincing argument after convincing argument led him back and forth as he revisited each party many, many times. Truly, no one party is to blame, but we must avoid the distraction of finger-pointing and each party needs to be held accountable for their contribution to a problem that is as complex as it is consequential.