As gas prices approach $5 a gallon, and some even predict $6 a gallon by summer, the White House has launched an investigation into what is causing the rapid price surge. But on Thursday’s “Mark Levin Show,” George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams said no investigation was necessary since the cause of the spike in energy prices was obviously the fault of Washington politicians listening to “environmental wackos.”

“And actually, you know – collusion, if you look for the source of collusion – it’s in Washington, D.C.,” Williams said. “The federal government is in charge of colluding, you know setting prices and colluding on prices. But the problem with oil – I think it’s a supply problem. The United States, you know off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf and California and then huge oil finds in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and North Dakota – we have more oil than Saudi Arabia has altogether. And so however, what’s the problem? The government listening to Congress listening to these environmental wackos – they’re stopping us from drilling and so the prices are going up.”

However, there is the potential for strange bedfellows in this debate, he said. According to Williams, it would be in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) best interest for the American environmental movement to succeed with its efforts to prevent domestic oil production. He explained as long as restrictions remained on procuring oil from domestic sources, the oil cartel stands to gain the most. So, it would seem logical for OPEC to want to support environmental activists, particularly with financial contributions.

“You know Mark, I would not be surprised at all if I discovered, and I think somebody should do a study, or an investigation – if I discovered that OPEC was making financial contributions to the environmental wackos in the United States,” he said. “If I were an OPEC person, I would want somebody to do what they can to keep American oil offline. You know, stop the drilling for oil in the United States. And so, I would think that would be kind of interesting investigation. I don’t know whether in fact they’re doing it, but it surely would be in interest of the OPEC nations to just stop the United States because we have the most oil in the world.”

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