| The current high gasoline prices have little to do with environmental regulation. They are up because the global price for crude oil is way up, due to production cuts that had nothing to do with environmental factors couple with a sharp increase in demand due to recovery from the pandemic. First, in 2020 the US told Saudi Arabia that the US might cut weapons sales and military aid if the didn't cut production. In response to that OPEC agreed to a big cut production for 2 years. Second, Russia invaded Ukraine which led to more disruptions in the global oil market. Some like to try to blame it on the current US administration cancelling sales of new oil leases on Federal lands, but the oil companies already have a ton of existing oil leases on Federal lands that they can put into production but are choosing not to. They aren't choosing to because they know that the aforementioned reasons for the current high prices are temporary and putting those leases into production would just lead to a glut later and low prices, making it unlikely they would come out net positive on those leases. I've also heard some try to blame it on cancelling Keystone XL, but Keystone XL would not have increased supply. It would have just made it cheaper for some Canadian producers to get their oil to refineries. Because the oil market is a global market, costs rising or falling for those Canadian produces wouldn't have a measurable affect on the market price of oil. It just would affect how much profit those producers could make on their oil. To so called "war on oil" that people have been accusing anyone who tries to promote clean energy of since Obama was elected, if it even exists, is about the least effective war in the history of wars on things, as any examination of global oil production by year will show. |