Via Steve Benen, I see that Haley Barbour has the explanation for higher gas prices. It’s not demand from China and instability in the Middle East; it’s a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the Obama administration (pdf):

BOB SCHIEFFER: Somebody told me that you actually said this week you think that the President is trying to drive up energy policy, energy prices on purpose. Did you say that?

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: No question about that. I mean, this administration’s policies clearly have been to drive up the cost of energy, so Americans would use less of it. That’s environmental policy. That’s not energy policy. But that’s their policy. They think it will give you less pollution. Make these alternative energy sources– excuse me, Bob, more competitive. When– when Barack Obama became president, gasoline was about a dollar eighty a gallon. And now it’s up to four dollars a gallon. Why should we be surprised when his secretary of energy said in 2008, Steven Chu, what we really need in the United States is to get the price of gas up to where it in Europe.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Well, you–

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: Well, we may need that in Berkeley but we don’t need that in Biloxi, I can tell you that.

BOB SCHIEFFER: I’ve– I’ve– I’ve– I’ve got to say governor, I’ve heard a lot of people give a lot of different reasons that energy prices have gone up but I believe you must be the first to say, he did it on purpose.

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: No, I don’t think that at all. Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008, under my cap-and-trade plan, you– the electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket. Not my words Barack Obama’s words–necessarily skyrocket. Now why would you try to push a cap-and-trade tax through to drive up the cost of electricity? Well, because they believe it will mean we’ll use less electricity. There’ll be less emissions. And so, I don’t– I don’t back off from that one iota. And it is hurting the economy. The– energy is a hundred percent of the economy. Energy is the life blood of the economy. That they’ve tried to raise the price of oil, they’ve tried to raise taxes, they’ve tried to raise the price of coal, they’ve tried to make it harder to get permits. So I don’t– I don’t think there’s any question that this is the policy of this administration.