You said — This enlightened self interest runs into a little bitty problem when it begins to appear to voters that there is effectively no competition in an industry which supplies an essential service. That problem is spelled “antitrust” and in the more extreme case “nationalization”.
I guess that’s why a lot of people (i.e., voters) are not entirely happy with free market mechanisms and this “enlightened self-interest” of businesses — that many advocate here.
And that’s why we get some of the policies that we do in government, too...
Really enlightened self interest would tell the refiners that when supply is in excess of demand, they need to compete on price. Not a whole lot, just enough keep the facade going.