Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations observes that what seems like a puzzle — the fact that even as domestic oil production increases, oil prices remain quite high — isn’t a puzzle at all. U.S. and Canadian oil supplies are as a general rule quite expensive to access, and so we’d be producing much less oil if the global price were substantially lower. Moreover, when the U.S. increases production, Saudi Arabia and other major suppliers tend to cut back, in the interests of preventing prices from collapsing. Oil demand in emerging markets continues to increase. All of these factors taken together suggest that instead of hoping for lower oil prices, the U.S. ought to continue to encourage increased domestic production while also stepping up efforts to reduce domestic consumption, as doing so will help shield consumers and taxpayers from a future surge in oil prices.