While there are those of us who are old enough to remember when gas was only a buck a gallon, you know us mid-twenty year olds, it might be time to savor these 3.69 prices we have now.  Its been reported over the last six months that OPEC has no intention of producing more oil because the price is not caused by a supply problem.  We could not even use the extra oil anyway because our refining capacity is already maxed out.  Later in other reports (mostly BBC) it quotes OPEC heads as viewing oil as a "strategic resource" and not simply a market commodity.  There stated aim at the time was 200 dollars a barrel by the end of next year.  Now I can not claim to be an expert on oil prices and there exact relationship with gas prices but I am assuming that with oil rising gas will as well.  So Hilary and McCain both propose to suspend the gas tax and pay for that by increasing taxes on oil companies.  The oil companies are targets because they make money finding the oil, supplying the oil, and refining the oil and make good money doing so.  How dare they make money of people's needs, who do they think they are, hopsitals?  What do they think this is, capitalism?  Come on people these shortsided ideas wont mean beans when gas another two dollars more a gallon next year.  What needs to happen,  (I read this from Thomas Friedman), is that we need to start setting aside large amounts of money for a Manhattan Project on a renewable reliable energy resource.  Our government spends so much money on items that hurt more than help in the long run (see tax rebate) that they could once not pander to the ignorant and do somethin for the benefit of every American rich and poor.  When we move beyond oil we move beyond the pollution, the fluxation in energy prices, and a dependency upon a region we have been antogonizing for the last sixty years for their oil.  If you want to hurt Iran or Syria don't spend money we borrow and print to fight wars with them, simply withdraw their oil income.  Those countries have nothing else comparable and would collapse from within.  This is an eventuality but we should speed this up by finding an alternative renewable resource for everything from fuel to plastics.  The more money we fund into this project (and I'm sure we can find some in a 2.8 trillion dollar budget) the quicker this gets done, and you can even involve the oil companies in this so that sector of the economy is simply transfered as opposed to destroyed.  Besides the oil companies are the ones with the supply infrastructure already in place.  Remember we have been spoiled the last twenty five years with cheap gas and that party is over- for good.  Its time we find solutions before the problem gets worse, which is inevitable, for there is no getting better from here.