Too much oil lowers prices and burns up profitability, even though it might make consumers happy. American shale firms are already pumping historic amounts of oil. And there’s a supply glut in the global market.

Exactly, and I’m betting that glut is a result of one of two factors (or a combination of the two): either oil producers thought there would be a higher demand than there actually is and/or they were incentivized to over produce, probably through government subsidies, of one kind or another.