On July 2, 2008, spot Oil Prices topped out at $144/Barrel, sparking doomsayers everywhere to gnash teeth and quit boating so much. Today, September 11, 2008, Oil Prices have crashed to $102/Barrel, a 29% drop, crushing speculators, refiners and the oil services sector at the bottom of the pile.

Exxon Mobile stock is at at 52 week low with a price drop around 25%. Halliburton is also getting slammed, down 36% for the year. Leading refiners, such as Tesoro are hit hardest, down nearly 75% from yearly highs. Pension funds, employee-owners, individual investors, and even the occasional oil company executive have seen their savings washed away, in some kind of windfall to the average consumer.

Isn’t it time that the most powerful economy on earth was able to support the oil companies? Don’t our leaders in Washington care about the retirees who are harmed when their pensions are fritted away, which only helps minivan driving suburbanites?

I am calling for a bailout of our nation’s oil industry, and a congressional investigation into how such a shining example of American Business could be so harmed by what must be market manipulation, and fickle consumers. Who among us is not guilty of cutting back on gas consumption? The selfishness of the American consumer has caused great harm to the Oil Industry. It is time to get to the bottom of this scandal.