[PvK]

Gas companies are ripping US customers off, using the excuses of current events (Gulf war, hurricanes) to raise prices even though it just means billions of profit for them.

Gas costs $6.00 outside the US because the governments are less supportive of mass consumption of fuel (fewer subsidies, more tax).

More important though is global warming and destruction caused by human carbon emissions. Humans are killing the planet, essentially because we are selfish short-sighted morons, and that's way more important than "prices at the pump", whatever pleasure some people have from commuting to a city job as the only passenger in a ridiculously enormous truck or SUV, and so on. As more and more countries (or just China, all by itself) motorize on the American model, good luck for the planet's ecology.

PvK