True. But they do that every year at this time and prices don’t usually spike 40% in 2 months. This time they say that an unusual amount of refineries are down due to repairs, which may be true, but from what I hear they aren’t in any big hurry to get them back up and running. Price controls aren’t the answer, but more refineries and competition is. There are too few oil companies and refineries in the US.
There's lots of competition. Oil is produced in a world market. The problem with refineries is getting regulatory approval. Even if the regulatory agencies were to allow a new refinery, the NIMBY's locate near a proposed site will use the courts to slow down the process. People want nearby oil refineries about as much as they want a nearby nuclear generation plant. What's really needed are new refineries not located on the US gulf coast. We were lucky in 1995 that Hurricane Rita didn't strike the Houston ship channel just weeks after Katrina shut down the refineries near New Orleans. If that had happened there would have been much worse shortages.