I was going to say the exact same thing. Because they can, because the dimwits are in charge and everyone knows there will be no drilling of new oil or increases of the domestic supply as long as they are in charge. There will do the exact opposite, every thing that can be done to make energy, including gas, prices go up will be done and new ones thought up. Oil companies are raising prices, and have been since they bottomed out this winter. As soon as Bozo cancelled all drilling and oil and gas leases gas prices started to rise again.
“because the dimwits are in charge and everyone knows there will be no drilling of new oil or increases of the domestic supply as long as they are in charge.”
Bingo. This is why we need a national energy policy of incentives for drilling and refining. We need enough capability such that we essentially cap the top side of the price range that speculators will bid crude up to. Even if we are not at all times using 100% of our capability, speculators would know that we could ramp it up in fairly short order.
If we had had such a policy for the last few decades, prices would never have gone to $4/gallon last summer, and would not have killed the US auto makers. Why? Because consumers would have felt safe enough to purchase the SUVs and trucks that Detroit actually make profits on!
But no, we couldn’t have that. We have to try to become France.
I was going to say the exact same thing.
That's some catch, that Catch-22.
oil is a commodity, the market dictates the price. Same as the by product gasoline. The oil companies would much rather have gasloine at a more reasonable price in a robust, sane economy.
The price is not just an arbritary thing where they get together and say “time to soak’ em”!