It reminds me of the famines due to failed crops during medieval times. It wasn't like people just said "well Hamish, it's supply and demand and the market must clear you know".

They just knew high prices for vital goods were wrong on moral grounds, and the church agreed. How many times haven't produced been called profiteers when they just try to do their job and let market forces work?

It's the same now. People don't know and don't care why gasoline is expensive. They just know that it is wrong and that someone must have comitted some evil act. Whose fault is it? Who to blame?

Speculators, OPEC, Chinindia, Big Oil, refiners, "little guys in Las Vegas" (lololol)? In the end people see that ones making the most money on their account is Saudi Arabia, so said country must be an evil profiteerer.

So Saudi Arabia is very careful in talking about lower prices, higher production, blames specualtors etc, everything to placate the consumer masses who don't know and don't care about supply and demand.

Then they don't actually do anything, but talk is cheap and they have export earnings of $1 billion a day.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.