One of the biggest problems is the speculators now in the crude oil market. Money has come out of the real estate market in billions and investors (hedge funds, money managers, ect) have placed this HUGE amount of money into paper oil contracts.

This has artificially run up prices and removed any sense of supply/demand into the oil market. Even OPEC has stated repeatedly that oil should be selling for no more than $60 per barral based on actually fundamentals. That's why they won't increase their output, they're afraid of a crash in prices if they do, since the price point is artificial (not tied to true demmand)

We need to flush out the speculators in order to return to true supply/demand (true use). The best way would be to threaten a sale from the Strategic Oil Reserve for something like $50 per barrel. It wouldn't take much to scare away the investors since they don't want to get stuck holding nothing but declining paper contracts.