As Gas Prices Surge, Biden Tells F.T.C. to Investigate 'Illegal Conduct'
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Biden asked the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday to consider whether “illegal conduct” by large oil and gas companies is pushing up gasoline prices for American consumers, the latest effort by the administration to target concentration in the energy industry in a bid to bring down prices at the pump.
The move is unlikely to spur immediate action by the F.T.C., which has the power to break up large industry players, and it is unlikely to affect gasoline prices materially any time soon. But it could spur the commission to open an investigation to gather data on how companies set gasoline prices, which could be used in future enforcement actions.
Mr. Biden’s letter to Lina Khan, the antitrust champion he appointed as chair of the commission, claims “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies.” The president noted that prices at the pump have risen even as the costs of refined fuel have fallen and industry profits have gone up. The two largest players in the industry, ExxonMobil and Chevron, have doubled their net income since 2019, he wrote, while announcing billions of dollars in plans to issue dividends and buy back stock.
The average gallon of gas was nearly $3.40 in the United States on Monday, according to the Energy Information Agency, its highest price in seven years. If the gap between refined fuel costs and gasoline prices at the pump were to return to normal prepandemic levels, drivers would be paying as much as 25 cents less per gallon, White House officials estimate. Earlier this year, Mr. Biden asked the commission to monitor the gasoline market for any illegal conduct. The commission responded by increasing scrutiny of mergers in the oil and gas industry.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/business/biden-gas-prices.html
Good.
= new reply since forum marked as read
is that they tell us that the "winter blend" is always "cheaper" so usually the prices drop this time of year vs right before Memorial Day when they are adding more ethanol and other additives to create the "summer blend", which is "more expensive".
In the spring of 2020, Saudi and Russia engaged in such a huge ramp up of production and price war, that they reached a point of a "negative" price per barrel, basically being willing to PAY buyers to "store it" since places were glutted and there was no place to put it. 
I even caught a snapshot from MarketWatch when it hit one of its negative peaks -
I do get that you do have a truck driver shortage (and you can't just throw a random Uber driver behind the wheel of an oil rig, which requires some specialized training/certification), but still.
I saw it start happening earlier and then heard it on my local news radio business report about 10 minutes ago, and right after I posted the OP, it started going down. It bottomed out down ~$3/bbl, although it's trying to recover...
