*sigh*
Supply and Demand. Keep a steady supply that can meet demand and you can charge whatever the fuck people will be willing to pay to get it. Oil is in high demand, people will pay the price because they have to have it.
Ethanol is a joke. Farmers who are helping to supply the ethanol, guess what they use to fuel their big machines...oil, not their ethanol. Ethanol burns at 60% of the efficiency that gasoline does. So, although it may be cheaper, you will be filling up more often therefore breaking about even, or coming out a little worse. Also, ethanol fucks engines to shit. I just had to replace several parts in my engine because ethanol ruined them. Why did I have to get those parts replace? Because I was buying the cheap gas at discount gas stations, that would be why. Even though I was using 93 octane, at 10-15% ethanol, it was slowing ruining my engine.
For your reading pleasure:
http://www.investmentu.com/IUEL/2007/20070323.html
I really liked the second section, fourth paragraph. The whole article is a good read though.
Also,
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp
Seems to me that Alaska and Georgia are the only two states that make less on a gallon of gas than the oil companies.
So, if oil companies only make $0.10 per gallon of gasoline, and are posting the profits that they are, how much then is the government making when the taxes that they get per gallon of gasoline are around twice what the oil companies get? Oh, and don't say that Dubya is to blame either, gas taxes listed there are on a state level, not federal. The one you can blame on the federal level is the $0.184 cent per gallon tax, and that you can thank the legislative branch for doing, and Dubya for passing.