Robert Samuelson considers an oil bubble and the reason for high prices.
As he mentions demand is pretty inelastic, so his suggestion that there should be higher gas taxes is probably not a good idea, but others such as Charles Krauthammer argue for higher gas taxes as well.
As he notes, despite high prices, gas is still only 4% of disposable income. So, while we cringe at a $3 gallon of gas, it is not that bad yet, and there are legitimate reasons for the rise in price. Some of these reasons are remediable by external forces to the market, namely building refineries and more exploration. These are longer-term solutions and they require the government to unleash oil companies which will draw a lot of resistance politically as the ANWR debate did.
