Now that gas is topping $3 per gallon, we should consider the heavy price the American people have paid to ensure that profits continue to soar for the oil giants.

In 2002, before the war, Saddam was producing 2.6 million barrels of oil per day even with the debilitating sanctions still in place. Currently, (given the success of Iraqi resistance attacks on pipelines) Iraqi oil production has dropped to a meager 1.1 million barrels per day. In other words, Bush's war has taken 1.5 million barrels a day "off line"; the precise amount the global market requires to reduce prices to the $45 per barrel range.

Consider this: the United States has spent roughly $300 billion on the war so far. At 1.1 million barrels per day (396 million barrels per year) we are currently spending $274 per barrel which translates into $12 per gallon at the pump.

$12 per gallon!!!

This represents the greatest surcharge on petroleum the world has ever seen. Think of it as the Bush Gas Tax, a boondoggle that quadruples the price of gas while killing 2,400 American servicemen and 100,000 Iraqis in the process.

Bush's ruminations on "price gouging" are ludicrous. It was Bush who spearheaded this monstrous rip-off, now he's pretending to defend the common man by playing "consumer-advocate".

What fakery.

His record on conservation is nearly as abysmal as his guru Dick Cheney who said, "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound comprehensive energy policy." (April 30, 2001)

Cheney is wrong. He saw the Baker report; if he had America's interests in mind, he would have initiated an massive restructuring of the economy focusing attention on conservation, rapid-transit, hybrid cars, and green technologies. Instead, 5 years later the American public is still lumbering around in their coal-powered SUVs choking the atmosphere, depleting the ozone, killing the ecosystem and scalding the planet. The administration's inaction has put the country on the path to catastrophe.

The Bush-Cheney plan is predicated on the belief that we can steal enough oil to keep the economy chugging along while the other, weaker countries flounder. It must be shocking for him to see that the Iraqi resistance has other plans.

But, Cheney isn't alone in his shortsightedness or his intransigence. The main contenders in the Democratic Party (Clinton, Kerry, Dodd, Biden, and Lieberman) still support the ongoing occupation; defending America's free access to dwindling oil supplies to the bitter end.

Presidential elections will not resolve this issue, the system is broken. There are no political solutions. We should be looking at developments in Nepal to understand how this dilemma will eventually be decided.

In Iraq, we see a nation that has been utterly destroyed to service the energy needs of a foreign economy. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed, maimed, displaced or traumatized. The water and soil has been poisoned with depleted uranium, malnutrition has grown to epidemic levels, academics and intellectuals have been assassinated by death squads; museums, graveyards, war memorials and mosques have been looted or demolished in a wanton act of cultural genocide. The entire civilization is being decimated to fill the coffers of oil magnates, plutocrats, and corrupt politicians.

Presently, the finishing touches are being put on an $800 million American embassy in Baghdad, a "fortress-like compound the size of Vatican City". It symbolizes America's determination to subjugate the Iraqi people and pilfer their resources. It will be the biggest gas station on earth; a fitting testimonial to George Bush and the Washington war-mongers.

So the president did what a floundering politician does: he tried to change the subject.

In this case, the president made the environment a scapegoat for rising gasoline prices. He suggested a false choice -- lower prices at the pump, or dirtier air.

It was ironic that the president made his gas-price speech before the Renewable Fuels Association, since the president was citing the association's main product, ethanol, as one of the many reasons that gasoline prices have gone up. Actually, most of the price of gasoline is determined by world crude oil prices, and the presidential saber rattling over Iran hasn't helped that. But it's unlikely the president will make a speech in Tehran anytime soon.

Regarding clean air requirements, the president noted that some state officials are requesting temporary waivers of clean-gasoline standards as a means of reducing price pressure. (Pennsylvania requested a waiver earlier this week for gasoline sold in the Philadelphia area.)

A short-term waiver isn't the worst possible outcome, as long as it is extremely limited. But health and environmental groups should and will protest any effort to make long-term weakening changes to gasoline standards.

The real truth is that oil companies could have anticipated this problem and planned for it better. Instead, they are taking advantage of a situation they helped create.

Compare the following presidential myths to the reality:

Myth #1: Clean air standards must be relaxed.

Bush says:

Under federal quality -- air quality laws, some areas of the country are required to use fuel blend called reformulated gasoline. Now, as you well know, this year we're going -- undergoing a rapid transition in the primary ingredient in reformulated gas -- from MTBE to ethanol...

Yet state and local officials in some parts of our country worry about supply disruption for the short term. They worry about the sudden change from MTBE to ethanol -- the ethanol producers won't be able to meet the demand. And that's causing the price of gasoline to go up some amount in their jurisdictions.

And some have contacted us to determine whether or not they can ask the EPA to waive local fuel requirements on a temporary basis ... So I'm directing EPA Administrator Johnson to use all his available authority to grant waivers that would relieve critical fuel supply shortages. And I do that for the sake of our consumers.

The reality is:

In last year's energy bill, Congress actually eliminated the requirement that cleaner reformulated gasoline contain MTBE or ethanol. MTBE makers -- including ExxonMobil -- decided to stop shipping its product after Congress refused to give them a deal absolving these big water polluters from product liability lawsuits. But the companies have known about that congressional decision for nearly a year. They could have arranged a smoother transition to new gasoline blends. But scarcity drives up prices -- and oil profits.

Myth #2: Environmental requirements have blocked oil companies from building new refineries.

Bush says:

There has not been a new refinery built in America in 30 years.

The reality is:

In declaring that part of the problem is that we haven't built new refineries in the U.S. in decades, the president is being simply disingenuous. As he well knows from his days in the business, the big oil companies decided for economic reasons that it was more cost-effective to expand existing refineries than build new ones. In fact, they have managed those expansions to avoid a gasoline glut that could lead to lower prices.

Myth #3: Some mythical entity has created "boutique fuels" around the nation.

Bush says:

The number of boutique fuels has expanded rapidly over the years, and America now has an uncoordinated and overly complex set of fuel rules ... I want to simplify the process for the sake of our consumers.

The reality is:

Some states have adopted specialized fuels -- usually at the request of the oil industry, which has frequently argued in favor of such fuels instead of cleaner gasoline. The oil industry has frequently profited by this seeming confusion.

In last year's energy bill, Congress limited the number of future blends. But the oil industry has not offered to return any of the associated profits to consumers.

The president and Republican-led Congress could have seen the rising gas prices coming miles away. The time to worry about it was last year when they were writing the monster energy bill, loaded with subsidies to energy companies. That's when concrete steps could have been taken to wean America from its oil addiction. Instead, the president is exploiting the public's anxiety over gas prices to advance his own oil-driven energy agenda.

Revenue grew to $88.98 billion from $82.05 billion a year earlier. Higher crude oil and natural gas prices and improved marketing margins were partly offset by lower chemical margins.

Its worldwide production of oil equivalent in the first quarter of 2006 rose 5 percent.

The earnings report comes amid consumer outcry in the U.S. about soaring gasoline prices. The average retail price of gasoline in the U.S. is now $2.91 a gallon, or 68 cents higher than a year ago.

It also comes as Washington lawmakers are looking to appease consumers with various proposals to make big oil companies pay more taxes.

In January, Exxon posted the highest quarterly and annual profits of any U.S. company in history: $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the full year.

Exxon said it invested $4.8 billion in capital and exploration projects, a 41 percent increase from 2005.

"In the first quarter of 2006, the results of our continuing long-term investment program contributed to a 5 percent increase in production," Exxon chief executive said in a prepared statement.

Exxon also said it returned $7 billion to shareholders through dividends of $2 billion and buying back $5 billion worth of shares.

Other dollar rates in Europe, compared with late Wednesday, included 114.02 Japanese yen, down from 114.70; 1.2585 Swiss francs, down from 1.2692; and 1.1224 Canadian dollars, down from 1.1279.

The British pound closed at $1.8034, up from $1.7851.

In midday New York trading, the dollar bought 114.01 yen and 1.2603 Swiss francs, while the pound was worth $1.8016.

Gold traded in London at $641.25 an ounce, up from $638.90 late Wednesday.

In Zurich, gold traded at $639.15, up from $637.85.

Gold rose $6.60 in Hong Kong to close at $638.20.

Silver closed in London at $12.90, up from $12.70.

I was at Doha at the weekend. Most (energy) people are not happy that the price of oil is so high because it is so unexpected and no one is quite clear what the impact will be," the UK's leading oil man said.

Other BP executives hinted that hedge funds and other speculators were partly responsible for the current record levels of 73 dollars a barrel.

It is said that there had been a massive increase in the number of financial institutions trading in the oil markets.

The oil company privately fears that unusual periods of very high crude prices and huge profits will spark a public backlash and encourage politicians to slap on more taxes.

Browne said that BP's taxes had already risen this year to 35 percent and would rise to 39 percent after a new North Sea tax comes into force.

BP said UK petrol had provided only the smallest financial contribution, but it admitted North Sea oil and gas had been very profitable.

Browne rejected suggestions that British gas consumers were paying for the company's financial success and hotly denied accusations that the company had not landed as much liquefied Natural Gas as it could have done.

The company also came under fire from environmentalists at Friends of the Earth for not spending enough on safety.