[mrmoby]

I'm not so sure I buy into the theory that the gov't stops this sort of thing. Really, if they lost the money on number of gallons sold, they would just up the amount of the tax. Let's say there is a gov't squash on this, there has to be a breaking point. You can only fork over so much to the gov't and oil companies before you have no more to give. At some point it will cause a major collapse of the economy, leaving a whole lot more rich folks out of money. This economy is so far dependant now on oil, that something will change. And rest assured, there will be someone, along with Uncle Sam, there to make money off it.

Think of it this way, if gas usage was to drop off, to the point where the gov't loses a significant revenue source, you can bet they will start taxing on a miles driven basis, or something similair.

As far as big oil, they have a limited resource. It will always be valuable. They won't lose too many pennys either.