On Election Day, the spot crude oil price was around $40 per barrel, and today it is around $100 per barrel — this is a 150% increase.  On the same day, the retail gasoline price was $2.10 per gallon, and today, it is around $4.60 per gallon (up around 120%).  If gas prices correlated with inflation, it would actually be 60 cents higher per gallon, not lower.

Biden whispers to gas station owners, "Just lower your price to reflect your cost" — as if they don't consistently conduct business operations without the advice of Sleepy Joe.  It seems that people throughout the Biden administration believe that crude oil magically and immediately moves from the spot market to our cars.

The truth is, there are many steps that crude oil must go through before it arrives at the pump, and each step is also reeling from the rate of inflation.  Delivering product from the well to the customer involves many companies and areas of focus:

1) Procuring the oil from the well.

2) Transporting the oil from the well to the refinery.

3) Refining the oil into gasoline, diesel oil, and other crude oil products. 

4) Transporting the oil, usually by pipeline, from the refinery to the terminals, which store the varying products in separate tanks. 

5) Transporting the product from the terminal to the retail store (gas station), usually by diesel-powered trucks.

6) Storing the oil in underground tanks, which are then piped to pumps to get the fuel into vehicles.

Given Joe's creep whisperings demanding that gas stations lower their prices, it appears he and his administration believe they can sell a lie that these small business–owners — most of whom own just a few stores — have a huge markup.  The truth is, they don't have the economic latitude to return to Trump-era prices, and Biden and his crew appear to be intentionally misleading the public to divert blame from themselves and their failing policies, both domestically and abroad.

Given the costs incurred between well and pump, gas retailers are fortunate to earn fifteen to twenty cents per gallon in profit, before a (likely) credit card fee of over 2%.  Running some numbers, that gives the retailer an estimated gross profit margin of 4% when the price is over $4 a gallon.  In other words, they must invest 96 cents for a return of 4 cents.  Anyone who claims that retailers are gouging is either uninformed or lying, as he doesn't have a clue how the oil industry and business work.

Although gas station–owners are not culprits of price-gouging, some American companies are, yet I haven't seen Biden or other Democrats call them "gougers."  See the list below: 

Comcast-NBC: 1st quarter 2022, 65.91%

Disney-ABC: 1st quarter 2022, 33.79%

Microsoft: 1st quarter 2022, 68.37%

Facebook: 80.58% in 2020

Google: 1st quarter 2022, 56.48%

Netflix: 41.6% for 2021

Microsoft essentially pays 32 cents in direct costs for products and sells them for $1.  The markup is over 200%.  Isn't that gouging?

Why doesn't Biden whisper to the networks to lower their advertising rates because it is a time of war, people are suffering, and it is their patriotic duty?  Could it be that these companies are safe from criticism because they also support the destruction of the fossil fuel industry?  Maybe Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg don't receive criticism because he was willing to spend hundreds of millions to influence the 2020 election?

Throughout Trump's years, and despite a high demand, energy prices were affordable.  On the other hand, Biden campaigned on a promise that he would destroy the fossil fuel industry.  As soon as he took control, he blocked a pipeline and took major steps toward preventing drilling.  Regulatory federal agencies started — and continue to do so — ramping up compulsory regulations against refineries.  Financial administrators and the SEC also organized to damage businesses that lent to or invested in the fossil fuel industry.

Should we be surprised?  According to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity:

First and foremost, 62 percent of Biden's top political appointees and staffers 'who deal with economic policy, regulation, commerce, energy and finance have virtually no business experience.'

What's more, only one out of eight Biden officials has what the authors deem 'extensive business experience,' and the average level of business experience across the Biden administration is about 2.4 years. The median years of business experience among Biden's top appointees is zero, since so few have any experience in the private sector, and the 'vast majority of the Biden economic/commerce team members are professional politicians, lawyers, community organizers, lobbyists, or government employees.'

The economic forecast details a slowing of rising inflation because of a rapidly slowing economy.  Yet if energy prices remain over $4 per gallon, the economy will suffer for a long time, especially the poor, the middle class, and small businesses.