Campaign rhetoric over high gasoline prices continues to intensify, with Mitt Romney stepping up his attacks on President Obama over prices at the pump, while the president seeks to show that he’s not impeding domestic oil production.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that Saudi Arabia is taking steps to return oil prices to “fair levels,” which the world’s largest oil producer says is about $100 a barrel compared to the current level of more than $126 a barrel.

So long as oil remains at or above $100 a barrel, gas prices will remain high, eat into Americans’ pocket books and slow economic growth. And despite what the presidential candidates say, rising long-term global demand for oil is going to keep gas prices high no matter how much we step up domestic oil production. Prices at the pump aren’t going to fall substantially until we open fuel markets to competition so that consumers have the choice to power their cars and trucks with cheaper, cleaner fuels, such as natural gas, ethanol and methanol, as well as gasoline.