Dave,
I hear ya. Maybe there is some of this at play.
But ... refiners make the same money per gallon and don't benefit from rising oil prices.
The only companies that benefit are the guys who hunt for it and suck it out of the ground and deliver it to be processed into gasoline and other distillates. Their costs to get oil don't change but if prices go up, the extra price goes straight to the bottom line. Not so with refiners.
You have to distinguish refineries from exploration & production companies. Some do both.
The environmental regulations for new refineries are onerous. Not only EPA and state regs, but a lot of NIMBY opposition too. It is what it is.
We wouldn't have too many problems if we had more capacity to refine sour crude (higher sulfur content), of which there is a fairly good supply.
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