When demand rises, especially for nations like India and China, prices rise. When supply is fractured by government forcing some 30+ different "blends" of gasoline, prices rise. When supply is stifled by several government regulations and government refusal to develop oil resources, prices rise. When taxes are imposed at the federal, state, and local level on every sale, prices rise. (I believe it is about $.83/gallon here in Illinois.) When revolution, war, and other unrest threatens world oil resources, prices rise. When taxes and fees are forced on oil companies, prices rise. When decades go by without the construction of refineries because of government regulation, prices rise.
...when people whose only reason for buying oil is to create an artificial shortage of supply, prices really go up.
When political unrest in part of the world can be used as an excuse to say that supply might be interrupted, prices go up regardless of the actual amount of oil available.
When the price of crude goes up by 10%, the price of refined gas also goes up by 10% even though the cost of raw stock is about 40% of the production cost.
When crude prices come down by 10%, the price of gas comes down by 4%, which of course is the amount that the drop in crude cost reduced the production cost.
When the price of gas goes up, the tax on gas goes up but is listed as a specific amount per gallon. When the price of gas comes down, the tax stays at that amount per gallon despite now being a higher percentage than before.
When a long weekend approaches, prices go up, supposedly because of the higher demand, which is true but hardly a surprise since the dates are marked on everyone's calenders.
When the conditions that caused the artificially high prices disappear, the prices stay up, or at the very least only go down for a short time then sneak back up.
Will the speculators be held responsible for the damage to the economy? Wouldn't it be reasonable to fine the speculators to recover some of those excessive profits and use that to stimulate the economy instead of tax money, which is a double whammy?
Our local price for gas is equal to $4.65 US per US gallon and that's for regular; $5.15/gallon for premium!
