Gasoline prices recently have dropped back down into the $3.75 range from a high of over $4. This is, in the short term, a good thing, for everyone who uses gasoline on a regular basis - which means most Americans.
Gas prices over $4 were causing a significant amount of pain to many Americans. They were also beginning to induce us to modify behaviors that if peak oil (and later peak coal) and global climate change are occurring (and they are) need to be modified sooner rather than later. These behavior modifications include driving less and buying smaller, more fuel efficent cars.
We have an unpalatable choice to make as a society.
Gas prices have, as mentioned, fallen somewhat from their mid-July highs. They may continue to fall or they may not. If they fall sufficiently, the pressure to drive less and buy more fuel efficient vehicles will dissipate.
To continue to achieve reductions in fossil fuel use, we need the price of gasoline to stay high. This will impose costs on those who have made certain choice, which we as a society previously encouraged.
We should probably take steps, such a raising gasoline taxes, to ensure that the price of gasoline does not fall below 3.50. As a political matter of course, this is not likely to fly - any more than Al Gore's BTU tax did in the early 90s.
In addition, we should be taking further steps to increase the size and availability of the stratgic petroleum reserve.
Eventually, the decline in the price of oil will reverse, whether this year or next or the year after. Our ability to deal with those shocks will depend in part on keeping the price of gasoline now relatively higher.