It's a sad day in America when the CEOs of oil corporations are the only ones in the room making any sense. Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, is quoted in the Houston Chronicle as encouraging conservation in order to bring down the high cost of gasoline:

"We just have to ask people to make sure they are using energy wisely," he told CNN. "Be efficient with it, don't waste it." [...]

Exxon Mobil doesn't want to see $3 gasoline any more than we do. Tillerson didn't say that, but it's implicit in his comments.

At that price, we start looking for alternatives, and we just might find one. Three-dollar gas may mean record profits for Exxon Mobil in the short term, but it could accelerate the decline in long-term demand. In other words, higher gasoline prices could mean lower profits later.

And finally:

The solution to higher gasoline prices is, of course, to either consume less, produce more, or a combination of the two — not the easy answers politicians now seek.

I'd prefer to see the former rather than the latter.