A racing friend in Texas posted this to help some understand the volatile gas prices right now. He has connections to many facets of the petroleum producing industry (and he builds some pretty sweet race cars too)
First of all, I live in Texas - the world capital for drilling, oil exploration, and refinery tech. Everything in Texas benefits when oil prices are up - all industries here are tied indirectly to oil. The actual price jumps of late are small and inconsequential to 90% of Americans, and beneficial to more people than realize it. Many of my customers are in oil field and look forward to increasing prices, as it drives up exploration / drilling / oil leases.
Oil prices are determined from a global market, with many variables, conglomerates/cabals (like OPEC), and market pressures. Politicians have little to no effect on them, or inflation, or the economy as a whole - as much as they would like to think they do.
Virtually all of Biden's "Executive actions" relating to oil are tied up in court and/or dead. The XL pipeline is another red herring that makes little to no difference in gas prices.
The global pandemic (6M+ dead) shut down driving, which reduced the need for fuel, and prices plummeted. This nearly or did kill many oil based companies around the globe. Many of my friends in the industry suffered, and it sucked. The vaccines + time made for a dramatic change in driving habits, which drove up the demand dramatically - and quickly. Shuttered plants, exploration, refineries, and other oil related operations take TIME to reopen and restart. This was a case of supply being outstripped by demand...
Then the Russian invasion of Ukraine hit as demand was ticking up, which made for a real scare that will impact the prices (speculative) in the short term, as Russia is a major exporter to Europe for oil and gas, and economic sanctions will effect this more. The USA gets ~2% of its oil from Russia, which might be halted very soon, but it would drive prices up further at the pump - which, as we have seen, is a trigger for many people in this country that do not understand anything other than hyperbolic headlines and simple black and white issues.
Overall the price for fuel in the USA is among the lowest per gallon of any Western country. Many of us choose to drive fuel inefficient cars and especially trucks because we are short sighted, or just don't get impacted by fluctuating gas prices. It does, however, effect transportation costs and speculative costs with rapid effect.
j