Don't make me defend congress, but high oil/gasoline prices have zip to do with drilling restrictions, etc.. Refineries are run at far, far below capacity and the oil companies are happy about that. They're not even really that interested in drilling off shore, in ANWAR, etc., but are mostly interested in the access to it and tying it up for the future. And trying to put the blame on others. The US produces 3% of world petro, and uses 25%. That's the problem, and exploration and production are not going to solve that problem. If you want to blame congress for anything, blame them for not pushing conservation a long time ago because they're whores of the auto and oil industries.
I'm with you about finding alternative sources of energy. That's why when I was blaming congress I had 'etc...' at the end of my list of complaints.
Refinery usage generally goes up and down with gas demand. Refiners don't want to buy oil, refine it and then have it sit while prices go down from low demand. Gas demand in the US has finally started going down, so refiners cut back. Refiners cutting production should actually cause oil prices to fall because of less demand (they are the actual buyers of raw oil). The problem now has to do with other parts of the world where the govs. subsidize the cost of gas so demand is not eroding. China finally let the national gas price rise, but barely. A telling stat about China is that they currently use 2 barrels/person/year. In the US it's something like 25 barrels/person/year. If China hits 1/2 of what we use on a per person basis, there will not be enough oil to satisfy demand.