The per barrel price of oil is over $90 and headed north. And as is being reported in the Wall St. Journal the global oil cartel known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has something to do with that. OPEC has not increased its output quotas since January 2009. The key to any successful cartel is control of supply and the key to controlling supply is keeping competition out of the market. In this regard OPEC has it made. President Obama has, either intentionally or unintentionally, become OPEC?s cartel enforcement agent. By banning nearly all new oil exploration in the United States, both on and off shore, from Alaska to the Gulf, the Obama Administration is sheltering OPEC from competition and allowing it to restrict supply and raise prices. Coincidentally, or maybe not, this policy dovetails almost perfectly with the President?s radical environmentalist agenda. He gets the effect of a CO2 tax, namely higher gasoline prices, while not having to take the heat for directly raising taxes. In turn this translates into an implicit subsidy for electric and hybrid vehicles and fuels like ethanol. In the mean time the President will get to point his finger at the greedy, money grubbing oil companies. All-in-all it?s a win-win-win situation?OPEC wins, Obama wins and the environmental pressure groups win. Heck, it looks like the only losers are the economy and American consumers.