If a Dem was President right now, I'm pretty sure that a gallon of gas would have cracked the $5/gallon mark long ago. But the grifting is soooooo spectacularly good for the connected that they don't want to kill the golden goose of grift that Trump is.

UpNorthJoe,

I'm basically a fan of your posts and like the way you think. But I think the above misses the mark.

Motor gasoline is about as competitive a market as you can find, with many different suppliers and no real distinction between brands - especially in shortages. So to imply that suppliers are coordinating to hold down gas prices would imply a gross violation of anti-trust laws. I don't see much anti-trust activity by our government these days, and it would be far more likely under a Demo government. Oil companies compete fiercely for market share to achieve more volume to spread over large fixed costs. And the competition is on price. That's not grift. The oil companies are not restraining supply to drive up prices or protect the POTUS - that would be grift. The existing refining capacity is running at record levels of operation. And oil companies have no control over crude prices.

Gas prices are high because refinery capacity and thus supply is very tight and crude prices are up. Demand exceeds supply. It's no more complicated than that. The industry didn't start the wars that have taken refinery capacity off the market and raised crude prices - that blame falls on Russia and the current POTUS - plus the lack of guts by Congress to do their job of being a check and balance on the POTUS. And ultimately falls on the people who voted for them.

But we humans love to find someone to blame besides ourselves.