President Barack Obama promised to get to the bottom of high gas prices by ordering the Justice Department to root out all of the price gougers along with the traders and speculators who don’t seem to care how much it costs them to fill up their tank.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced the formation of the Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group, part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Working Group, a team of Washington’s best regulators who, if they do as good a job on energy markets as they did with the mortgage market a few years ago, offer little hope for lower prices at the pump.

Geez, it’s only mid-April and they’re already paying $5 a gallon for premium in parts of California. While CNBC correspondent Jane Wells appears almost giddy when pointing out these high prices, host Maria Bartiromo emotes real anguish, a combination that, unfortunately, we could see again and again in the months ahead.

The national map at Gasbuddy shows that the average price for regular unleaded in the Golden State is now over $4.10 a gallon – visitors are advised to fill up that rental car before getting within a mile of the airport in order to five or ten dollars.

Anyone wondering whether financial markets in the year 2011 are going to “rhyme” with either 2010 (when inflation was quiet and a mid-year market downturn was resuscitated by the Fed) or 2008 (when soaring energy prices played a major role in the tumult that followed) might want to review what oil prices looked like at this juncture three years ago versus today, courtesy of these charts cobbled together from INO.com.

There is a stunning resemblance in the eight months worth of price data for the May WTI crude oil contract for these two years. The scales are virtually the same and the only real difference is in the price history prior to August of the year before as reflected in the 200 day moving average. This might be something worth keeping an eye on…