These environmentalists have long said that one of their goals was to drive up the price of gasoline so that people would be forced to reduce consumption and also so that alternatives would be able to be competitive.
The excessive regulations and the constant legal hurdles and lawsuits have made it so that only extremely large and established companies have been able to to compete in this market.
Now we have a situation where demand has outstripped supply and expanding supply will take considerable time and expense.
That means that those large oil companies who have weathered the regulatory nightmares are now in a position where they are going to make a lot of money because the government has not allowed the market to expand to keep up with demand.
The problems of short supply of gasoline are government created.
The environmentalists are getting exactly what they wanted.
The oil companies who put up with the regulations and invested wisely are reaping the benefits of those investments.
Consumers are paying the price.
And now our politicians which facilitated the creation of this situation are now saying that the solution is for the government to interfere even more in the market and stop profiteering.
Socialism 101. Sell out the people to special interests and then claim that the solution to the problem you created is more government intervention.
Well said!