It's not just oil speculation, it's partly a result of the devaluing of the US Dollar currency.
I always said it would take 5.00 per gallon to get people to seriously look at their habits. Still, at 5.00 per gallon, compared to 2.50 per gallon; if you get 25 mpg average and drive 15,000 miles per year, that's only 1500.00 more for fuel per year...125.00 more per month, or about 4.00 per day. If you don't have 4.00 extra per day to spend on fuel, you're living above your means...ah, but, this is "America...land of the free-spending and hardly saving anything".
One less Starbucks visit a day solves the search for 4.00. I'm just not feeling sorry for us as a nation. We didn't learn sufficiently from the opportunities to learn this lesson in the 1970's, so, we are repeating the course. We're one of the richest nations on earth, and we scream like spoiled children when we don't get to play like we want to play.
I drive about 60,000 miles a year for work, and chose a vehicle with a Ford Modular 4.6 engine. I average over 25 mpg, and, if I keep the speed to 65 maximum, I get just over 29 mpg, I'm comfortable, relatively safe, and it is reliable. It only cost me 12,000.00. 5.00 per gallon fuel is insignificant to my lifestyle, due to this vehicle choice, as well as my other choices in life. However, for those that are truly frugal and still feeling the pain, I feel sorry for those....however, if you are someone that is paying for an internet provider so that you can read this...you aren't being truly frugal...you'd need to be in a library where you get free internet access.
I hope we learn The Lesson now...but, I'm too experienced to really think that, as a nation, we'll be any smarter this time around. The best strategy is to be smart enough to learn It for yourself and your family, and act on your knowledge.