There are no shortages of oil or gasoline. No more needs to be produced than is being produced.
The high cost has nothing to do with supply and demand?
Making the big bucks, huh?
alternatives are still a long way off and the world appetite is growing fast.
Your answer is technically true only if prices are high and usage restrained. Supply and demand have reached equilibrium with gas prices over $3.00 per gallon and oil over $100. Absent an increase in supply or reduction in demand (a global recession), both of those levels will increase. Increase supply by 10% and the price would drop dramatically. The only time you could say supply is not the reason is when gas is unsold at a price below the cost of production.
Open exploration and drilling in Alaska, the Pacific coast and the gulf and the speculative pressure on oil will be released and the price of oil will drop by as much as 30% or more.
Reduce the restrictions on newly constructed refineries and it will reduce the overhead costs of production while increasing supply. The cost of gasoline will drop.
Increase the use of nuclear plants and the usage of oil for heating and electrical production will fall, increasing the availability of fuel oil for transportation.
Congress has not done one single thing that doesn't amount to an increased cost of production. Until they lift their boot from the neck of the system, prices will remain high and go higher. The laws of economics guarantee that.