Mike,
Prices are heavily influenced by the futures market. Hell, I'm not happy, but if you look at how prices fluctuate around the times gov't inventory reports are released, you'll see some correlation.
Anyways, what's propping oil up right now, after a time of relative calmness, is geopolitical uncertainty.
Iran is stirring the pot and people are worried about supply constraints.
I don't doubt that there may have been some gouging at the retail level at the time of Katrina, but equilibrium supply and demand are dictating the prices right now.
I had a fascinating discussion about oil with an energy trader.
There is more than enough crude to go around.
It's just not the light sweet variety (i.e., low sulfur) that our refineries are accustomed to refining into gas. We need to revamp our refinery capacity. Something tells me that there is an economic incentive to do that right now, but new capacity doesn't exactly turn on a dime.
Anyways, getting back to fishing - if prices trend as they are now, I think I'm gonna be fishing local a lot more this season.