If anyone is in doubt about who is causing the spike in gas prices. If anyone says "presidents don't set gas prices" - please share this.
Also - while presidents don't set the price at the pump directly, they do make massive impacts on the gas and oil prices. Biden DID cause it. Directly. With his attack on energy sector starting on day 1:
- Keystone pipeline cut (830,000 barrels per day cut)
- Oil and gas leases on public land shut down
- ANWR leases shut down
- Fracking canceled
- Offshore drilling canceled
How are gas prices set? Gas prices are set on the Futures Markets where the prices of commodities are bid on for investments. How did Biden affect that? The list above shows how. When he made those changes, he signaled the Futures Markets that the US was attacking it's own energy production and that industry segment would be impacted. That caused prices to start rising on Jan 22, 2022. They haven't stopped, because he keeps attacking the energy sector.
"Well, Oil companies are greedy and raising prices." Actually, they raise prices to be able to afford to put product out in the coming 6-months.
Think about it this way - a gas station owned by an American citizen buys gas to sell at the pumps. Let's (for the sake of discussion) say he pays $10,000 for the load. He charges enough to make a fair profit and sells the gas for a price. When he's done selling that load, he needs to be able to pay for the refill - and have a profit at the end to pay his employees and himself.
Now, let's say that the next load costs $20,000 and he didn't charge enough to set aside that much $$. So, he has to cut the delivery back to what he can afford or raise the prices to cover his loss for the next time - plus make up his short fall.
These deliveries are on a contract - usually a year long. So, they contract to get a set amount of fuel delivered each term (week, 2-weeks or whatever) they have to take that amount of fuel or they are in breach of contract.
So, when prices are spiking, he's trying to assume what he will need to be able to pay for that next delivery of gas. If he doesn't have enough to pay, he has to shut down.
The same thing happens to the oil companies. They have to be able to refine the fuel and get it delivered to the gas stations. The truckers are raising their prices b/c the costs for diesel is also rising. The refining costs are also rising b/c the cost for a barrel is rising ($30/barrel under Trump; $120/barrel today)
So, no - oil companies and gas station owners aren't gouging people - they are trying to keep themselves ahead of the costs coming the next delivery.
The issue is Biden's policies. It ALL rolls up to Biden.
