House Speaker: Oil prices "disconnected from supply and demand"

The New York Times interviewed the Republican Speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, for their article on the on-going political manuevering over high gas prices:

Mr. Hastert said Republicans wanted to make certain that Americans were not victims of price manipulation. The increases appear "disconnected from supply and demand," he said, adding, "We need to know why that is happening."

How do these idiots ever stay in office?

Just a few clicks on the NPR website tells us the following:

The biggest factor in rising costs is the price of crude oil, followed by the cost of refining.

If a gallon of gasoline costs $2.90 (this week's average, according to the Energy Department), crude oil accounts for about $1.60. The cost of crude oil on the futures market has risen about 33 percent in the last year. This reflects supply problems in such places as Nigeria, Iraq and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the threat of supply problems in Iran.
...
In January 2003, before the U.S. invasion, Iraq produced 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. Production fell sharply during the invasion, and recovered to as much as 2.3 million barrels per day in 2004. Last year, however, Iraq rarely produced as much as 2 million barrels a day. And in January of this year, daily production was only 1.6 million barrels. By itself, this would not be a huge loss to the world market. But coupled with supply problems in Nigeria, Venezuela and the Gulf of Mexico, it doesn't help.

Add to this the ever-growing appetites of China and India for energy, and you'll see, Mr. Halstert, it's actually all about supply and demand.