&gt;  actually allowing them to destroy the frackers and other high cost producers for a couple of years of cheap oil is insane.<p>As Americans, we&#x27;re terribly shortsighted.<p>We provide agriculture subsidies, because food is a national security issue. But is not energy? OPEC held the US hostage <i>40 years ago</i>, and we still haven&#x27;t gotten our act together.<p>If we were smart (we&#x27;re not), we would increase gas taxes to set a floor, and ratchet that floor up every 6 months. Those taxes would be diverted to electric vehicle incentives (currently, a $7500 tax credit; it should be a rebate taken off the price of vehicle at delivery).<p>Sadly, we&#x27;re due to repeat our follies. People will buy gas guzzlers during this short reprieve, and then when the price skyrockets back up after expensive producers are pushed out of the market, everyone is going to whine, kick, and scream, &quot;But but, it was so cheap!&quot;<p>The House Of Saud doesn&#x27;t care about climate change, they don&#x27;t care about the global economy. All they care about is extracting as much per barrel as they can, for as long as they can (despite this temporary price cut to drive competitors out of business).<p>Sigh.