A windfall profits tax on oil companies with an instant and continuing rebate in the same form as the recent "stimulus" is the proper address to the current gasoline problem.
An instant rebate program designed around the same guidelines as the recent "stimulus" could rebate a minimum of $40 a month to the two earner family at the lower end of the earnings scale. As with the current stimulus the rebates would phase out for those of higher incomes.
Those who guzzle will be subsidizing those in need while the bulk of people between the two extremes will continue to modify their use of gasoline as they have already.
Whether your opinion is that the price of gasoline is being set by a cartel of big oil or by supply and demand, the cost of taxation imposed on the oil companies will not have any substantive effect on prices. But as people adjust their use of gasoline as they have been doing then prices will tend to abate.
The Windfall Profits Tax should phase out when oil prices fall below some rational price per barrel. A wild guess is $80, but that is not anything other than a wild guess. The percentage for the "surtax" is also debatable, but 50% is probably a good starting figure. People need to understand that this is a war on stupidity and drastic measures are call for.