Gas prices, oil prices, how do we understand them?

This is an article that frames the discussion quite well.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46821859

This is the White House's view on the issue:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/gasprices
Note:  There are links for videos of Obama's speeches on the topic.
You can watch those to see if you disagree, or actually find merit to his thoughts and approaches to the issue.

My statement:
Business news report on oil and gas prices. Key concept: Supply disruptions and potential supply disruptions change the market price. Iran being largest concern today. Concept 2: Oil is priced on the global market. In 36 years of drilling variation in the US - none has impacted the price of oil heavily. Concept 3: Best way to pay less is more efficient vehicles. New fuel economy standards are having an impact and will increasingly over time.

My belief: The faster we can get 18 wheeler trucks onto natural gas, the faster oil imports will plummet, and we will use cleaner fuel from home. Context: Glut of natural gas has made cheap prices. Stimulus spending seeded some rapidly growing producers of natural gas 18 wheelers. 18 wheelers make a small number of vehicles on the road, but a huge quantity of gas consumption. 18 wheelers fuel up at a much smaller number of stations. Deploying a natural gas fueling infrastructure would be much easier than it would for commercial vehicles. This infrastructure could be available for consumers in the future to fuel natural gas powered cars along highways... etc. and can provide the backbone for consumer adoption of natural gas powered cars. 


Future research:

I will be looking into the specific elements that increase volatility and have driven up prices over time.  

One side, I will be looking at the total dollars within the commodities markets from trading that does not involve the usage of oil, but involves making money off oil that is bought and stored for profit.  Stock market ETF's...etc. 

I will be looking for data that sets the trend and pointing it out. 

Solutions come when the full picture is understood.  

I do favor an all of the above approach to energy development.  

I am watching things that the military is testing.  

The military is able to fly jets and drive tanks off fuel that comes from algae.

And they are developing this further.

Why does this work?

Oil is "fossil fuel."  Plants that have been fossilized under the ground that we are now burning for energy.

Algae is a plant form that can be produced extremely fast and as a plant form - is the same type of material source as oil.