It's simple math. The price spiked up and stayed high a few years ago, when has lead to the boom of (USA) domestic oil production in the
Dakota area, and more oil available on the market, caused the price to drop, and exports from OPEC to drop.
OPEC, wanting to sell more oil, lowers the price, pumps more, and floods the market with even more oil. This causes the speculators to drop
the price on the open market. With the price lower, drilling for oil becomes cheaper, less return on a barrel of oil, versus the cost to extract &
refine it, making domestic companies, investors stop or reduce drilling because of little or no return on that investment. You just can't stick a
pipe in the ground to drill for oil in the USA anyway. You must get 3,103 different legal things sorted out, EPA, environmental impact, the hardware
& people required to extract it, shipping it etc. So, once the domestic drilling slows or stops, and the "glut" of oil evaporates, then OPEC slows
delivery of oil on the international stage, and BOOM! The price skyrockets again. By the time the domestic production ramps up again, it will be
months if not years, thereby insuring a huge windfall for OPEC.
Alternatives are ok, but, nothing will stop the use of petroleum products. A lot of anti-oil people forget, there are a LOT of medical discoveries, and
cures available today, if not for the petro-chemical industry.