Why?

As oil makes like the Cliffhanger game from The Price Is Right once again, I'm reminded--once again--that the answer to any question beginning with "why" is usually "money".

I have lots of questions about this latest crude spike, all of them starting with 'why'.

Why is this happening?

The excuse du jour is Libya and the madman who is clinging to power there. Libya, after all, is an oil producer: they contribute a whopping 2.7% of world supply. Saudi Arabia has pledged, repeatedly, to make up any shortfall, though a source I trust says the oil reserves in that country are substantially overstated. This shocking...SHOCKING!...revelation was common knowledge in peak oil circles six years ago, upon the publication of Matt Simmons' book Twilight In The Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. One wonders if it's common knowledge in the commodity markets. Frankly, I doubt it: oil'd be cheap at twice its current valuation, if that were indeed the case. No, I don't think peak oil has...quite...gone mainstream just yet.

But nor do I believe for a second that a mere 2.7% of the world supply potentially going offline is behind this latest runup in the price of crude. I think it boils down to money, in this case lots and lots of money to be made. Just as was the case in 2005 and 2008, speculators are running the show. Hang on to your seats, folks: if recent history is any guide, there's a helluva dropoff looming over yonder hump. Gee, you think maybe this time they can take the whole economy off the cliff with 'em?

And to lighten the mood after that somber question, a joke:

A CEO, a union member, and a front-line worker were standing in front of a cookie jar. The CEO opened the jar, withdrew eleven of the twelve cookies in there, and put them in his suit pocket. He then turned to the front-line worker and said, "watch out for that union guy! He's trying to steal your cookie!"

Okay, so we know why oil's spiking: because they said so, now shut up and watch Charlie Sheen self-destruct, that's why. But the next question is a little thornier. Canada has a lot of oil. In fact, we're supposedly second to Saudi Arabia in terms of reserves accessible with current tech. I'll leave the 'dirty oil sands' debate for another day. What I want to know is this: why are we beholden to the world oil price? Why can't we use our own damned oil? Hey, we'll even share it with you Usaians, as if we have a choice and gladly. Actually, under NAFTA, we are not allowed to disrupt the 66% of the oil we produce that goes to you fine folks, nor can we charge you a higher price than the one we pay. That's direct from the "and you thought Canada was a sovereign nation" files.

Anyway, what's the deal here? Does anybody know? I'm not asking for the kind of subsidized gas prices you find in Venezuela (12 cents a U.S. gallon!) That said, there are some home truths I got knocked into me the last time I suggested that $5 or $6 a gallon would maybe starve us gluttons a tad. To wit: Canada's really big. It's also really spread out, and many of our breadbaskets are not exactly convenient to our major cities. In short, gas prices much higher than what we're currently experiencing would be catastrophic to our national economy.

So no, I don't want cheap cheap pricing, but I'd sure like some insurance against the speculators and their lame excuses for lining their own pockets. It seems like common sense to use the oil we're producing. Doesn't it?