Oil Reached A 4 Year Low- Here's Why

For many years the 12 nation members of OPEC held a near monopoly on fuel prices. When the price of oil came down they simply reduced exports causing prices to go back up.

This is no longer the case since technology has made it possible for nations to frack oil & natural gas.

In addition it's been confirmed 100 billion barrels of oil exists within the bitumen sands (asphalt in it's natural state) in Canada which holds almost 71% of the world's bitumen. (It's estimated there could be more then 2 trillion barrels worldwide)
Instead of withholding oil exports they starting ramping up production back in August causing prices to drop. Since costs are considerable for extracting oil via fracking and bitumen sands OPEC nations are attempting to shut down those operations. By doing so, even if they get less per barrel, they will sell more barrels then they would otherwise. Thus returning those nations dependency on OPEC nations' oil once again.

In a roundabout sort of way this is a good thing. Consumer oil prices came down. Less fracking and tar sands operations results in less threats to our environment. But overall it is still short sighted. This neither makes us energy independent nor help reduce the world's carbon footprint. Solar, wind and a vast array of other alternative energy sources in the long run will accomplish both.

Furthermore alternative energies don't require digging holes all over the place, pipelines, oil tankers nor refineries. Nor having to play political games with some pretty nasty foreign governments that can end up in wars with them.