High energy costs usually do not mean squat to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Other non-factors in their lives are high health care costs, high cable rates, high food costs, high travel costs, high housing costs, and high college tuition costs. Things that drive us, the rabble, to drink.
The only reason Bush and Rove and Cheney and Frist and Hastert are finally reacting to the gasoline price issue is purely because of timing. Extremely low approval ratings plus an extremely high cost of living (led by fuel costs) in the summer before an electionseason might mean an extreme loss of House and Senate seats for the party that caters to the whims of the Ruling Class.
The price at the pump is finally becoming that the elite cannot afford to ignore because it is threatening to take away the political party that has made their New Golden Age flourish for the past 6 years.