Early on in the Bush administration Ari Fleisher was completely honest about what they were going to do to encourage Americans to change their lifestyle to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels: 

"Asked whether the president was considering a campaign urging Americans to change their lifestyles and conserve gasoline, Fleischer replied: "That's a big no. The president believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policymakers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one."

The statement above more than any other explains why gas prices are so high today.  They've made no effort of any kind to reduce usage, not one single useful thing.  It's been given no priority at all.  These people have failed to anticipate every single crisis they've ever had to deal with, no matter how much warning they were given.

If you parse that statement carefully, what you realize is that it is an argument in favor of selfishness.  It says that the American people are selfish, that selfishness is an American way of life, that it ought to be, and that this administration applauds the fact that it is, and promises never to ask them to change.  They've lived up to that promise.  What it doesn't do is provide a plan for the pigs to follow when the trough is finally empty.  That would be "hard work", something this president never likes to contemplate.