demand in the US won't decrease enough to offset the rising demand in China and India. over there , the cost of oil is just the price of becoming affluent.when people have very little and their lives improve monetarily, then the cost of gas is not that big a deal.their lives don't revolve around it like here in the west.the world markets see that demand is not going to go down,so the prices end up climbing.there is no threat of a glut of oil to bust prices.it's basically unrestrained capitalism at work.eventually there will be a worldwide recession which should help stem the demand, unless the chinese market keeps chugging along to serve itself.if that happens we may all be screwed.