Economics Question:

The rise in the price of oil can be traced to a simple factor, but there are several other contributing factors.

The simplest explanation is that the demand for oil is greater than the current production. When demand exceeds supply, price will increase, as people are willing to pay more to ensure that they get their scarce resource (oil in this case).

Depending on your political views and knowledge of the situation, you may also believe that the production of oil is much lower than capacity because certain middle-eastern countries know that America depends on oil imports more than other countries. An increase in oil prices will lead to a slightly weaker US economy.