Oil exec blames drivers for high gas prices

Just what you wanted to hear huh? A rich gas exec telling you essentially that it is your fault gas prices are as high as they are. In a sense it is true. We do use much more gasoline than any other country and there is no better way to get gouged than to blow the demand curve out of the water. At the same time you know that the satements about trying to keep up with demand are highly exaggerated and the gas companies are simply taking advantage of us by saying they can only get so much into our tanks.

Until the available supply meets America's unquenchable thirst for gasoline, the prices at the pump are not likely to drop much, the head of the country's second largest petroleum refiner said Wednesday.

“It is true that gasoline prices move with oil prices, but ... demand continues to go up. Even with gas prices over $3 per gallon, demand continues to go up. That's really quite surprising,” James Mulva, chairman and CEO of Houston-based ConocoPhillips, said during an exclusive interview on TODAY.

“The issue is providing supply. We are running our refineries at capacity ... We are importing as much as we can,” Mulva told TODAY host Matt Lauer. more