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About 75 percent of the crude oil marketed here is sold off the books, and they are doing trades that would be illegal if it was a regulated market, and of course they do not want to regulate it.

In 1973, America imported 30 percent of its crude oil needs. Today, that number has doubled to more than 60 percent. Gas prices are as high as they are now in part because we've had no comprehensive national energy policy for the past few decades.

The price of crude oil accounts for 55 percent of the price of a gallon of gasoline, driven by global supply and demand. The United States depends on foreign sources of oil for 62 percent of our nation's supply. By 2010, this is projected to jump to 75 percent.

Public-policy-wise, if you want to be consistent, crude oil is a bulk commodity, and you should be able to export it. I would rather the crude go to U.S. refineries to get refined and then export the refined product because we get double, triple the money.

There is no free market for oil.

Energy companies, such as Chevron and Shell, and oil producing countries, such as Kuwait and Venezuela, pump crude oil from their vast land holdings and sell it on the world market.

The one thing people seem to forget is the more oil we have, the lower the price and the lower the profits the oil companies make.

People understand we have a dependence upon foreign oil. What they do not understand and find incredibly ridiculous is that we import refined product just making us more dependent on the industry.