"Those with power" are the voters, the vast majority of whom would gladly run them all over in order to save a few dollars. We're getting exactly what we deserve.
Remember, republicans regularly vote because "gas went up" while they choose to drive a pickup truck that gets half the fuel economy of other options while they never even use the truck bed, and while they ignore that if gas going up a few cents a gallon significantly impacts your financial situation then you were in a very bad place already and you should maybe consider how that happend (it's probably not the liberals who have had like six years of total fed control over the past 40 years and have basically never held power in actual states) and also you can cut your fuel usage in so many goddamn ways that don't involve voting for the party that refuses to allow military appointments because he's upset that we allow trans people in the army.
People regularly vote because "gas went up". It's not just Republicans. Unfortunately the party that says "climate change is a hoax and you don't have to change" is always going to win over the one that says "we have to conserve and you have to live less luxuriously in order for us to make it."
I live in a liberal area. Hardly any Trump voters here. Getting people to drive slightly less or even allowing a bike lane to allow other people to drive slightly less is viewed as the apocalypse.