If prices get too high, the industrialized world may turn to alternative sources of energy. But if OPEC is profiteering on U.S. oil reliance, so is government. Gasoline was readily available in the 1960s for 19.9 cents a gallon, including taxes. The total tax on a gallon of gas is up to 40 percent in several states, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Government makes almost as much per gallon off gasoline as do the OPEC countries.
Gasoline taxes hurt the poor far more than the wealthy, for obvious reasons.
It's odd that those who most loudly proclaim their support for progressive taxation are among those who most fiercely resist efforts to shift the burden away from the regressive gasoline tax. Enter words describing a concept or keywords.