gas prices up again.
Unfortunately, gasoline is a commodity just like grain or gold or beef in the supermarket. It's all about supply and demand...pure and simple. Broker's in trading pits set market prices as a result of their trades between speculators. As long as people continue to drive their new cars that they just got a smokin "employee pricing" deal on, and we try to continue on with our own everyday lives, and keep on paying whatever price for the gasoline to do it, prices are going to continue to be set by the market demand and what it will bear. Oil companies, like most all corporate industries, are opportunistic by nature.
As consumers, about all we can do is try to reduce demand and hope that refinery production can come back soon so that the margin between demand and supply will widen and let prices come back down. It doesn't matter how much oil you have, or can get, if you can't refine it, it's pretty much worthless even if it cost's $70@barrel.