The government should've jacked the price to where it is now 15 years ago, to discourage the idiotic SUV purchases that are a big part of the problem now. Convervation only becomes important when the masses feel it in terms of prices. Now they're stuck with SUVs. Hard to feel sorry for the many lacking any foresight whatsoever, these higher prices were always in the cards.
$4-$5 adjusted for inflation is not much relative to prices in the 70s, people got used to expecting low prices to last forever. Americans are addicted to driving and prefer big cars, they're only cutting back at the margins right now because the prices really haven't gone up that much in relative terms, yet.