The most damaging thing about the notion that gasoline prices are determined by the interplay of producer “greed” and political pressure to keep prices “reasonable” is that it deflects attention from the need to increase supply and production capability. To the extent that people believe that all we have to do in order to have lower prices is for politicians to hold hearings and threaten producers with huge new taxes, support is reduced for the one useful thing the politicians can do — namely to stop interfering with oil drilling and the building of new refineries to turn the oil into useful products.

That adults can believe in the power of politicians to give us cheaper energy shows that many have never outgrown Santa Claus.