In 2001 the percentage of speculators (those that don't use the oil they buy) that had a license to bid on oil commodities was only 27%. After deregulation of the licensing procedures by Republicans in Congress in 2003 this percentage began to rise sharply, and speculators now make up 81% of the oil commodities market. The rise in the price of a barrel of oil has tracked the rise in speculators in the commodities market. Reimplementing tighter controls would significantly reduce the price of oil.

Regardless of the solution sought there is no possible way to drill out of this problem. Being a world market whatever extra supply produced by the US will be either insignificant compared to world output or compensated for by OPEC nations with equally reduced output. Reducing the demand through conservation and alternatives s the only solution. Those that tell you we have gigantic domestic reserves are counting sources that are not economically practical currently. For example, gas would have to cost $10/gal to make oil shale commercially viable for the oil companies to pursue.

If you're a defender of Exxon or Big Oil profits as necessary or justified then look what they're using those profits for. Last year Exxon took $26 billion of profits and bought back shares of their stock to increase the price and the value of their company. Very little of this is going back into reinvestment or research. Oil companies are not researching cleaner energy because the need is not present yet. They believe there is 40 years worth of oil left, so any real research into alternatives can wait several more decades until it is pursued aggressively.

If you're interested in curbing your own use look up hypermiling. I get 32mpg normally and 18 mpg while towing out of my Tacoma through these techniques.