Are money-grubbers like Richard Arens responsible for high gas prices in the US?

YES! It is the speculators (futures traders), such as this moron (Arens), who are chiefly to blame. These people are more responsible than anything/anyone else for some of the high prices we are seeing. They find any little "excuse" to start a panic to try to drive prices up. For example, they worry about "unrest" and instability somewhere like, say, Nigeria, where lots of oil is drilled. Can ANYONE remember a time since it has become an independent nation, when Nigeria WASN'T unstable? We are talking about AFRICA here, after all! Then these spazoids start worrying about possible hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico or something (yeah sometimes we have those too, but that is life)......or they start trying to scare people talking about how if we go to war with Iran that oil will be $200-300 a barrel. I have my own opinion on what needs to be done to people such as Richard Arens and his ilk (but I am sure that Yahoo would ban me if I typed it here)..........pure and simple they thrive on scare tactics and doomsday predictions in order to keep the prices inflated. Oh, and I heard that this doofus lost $600 on the deal. I am sure it was "chump change" to him, anyway. Someone needs to put a stop to this madness..........people need to stop paying attention to these idiots, because our economy cannot continue to sustain these ridiculous prices.