The media has been reporting that the recent uptick in gas prices is due to a rash of refinery problems across the country. The fact that the country has a shortage of oil refineries and that the ones that are still operating are old and decrepid is the supposed reason that we are seeing 5% increases in a single day.

However, if oil refineries are really the problem, then shouldn't all other petroleum based products be increasing in price as well? I don't see petroleum jelly skyrocketing. Or what about everything made out of plastic such as plastic grocery bags. I recently found out that a local mid-sized grocery chain uses 5.8 million plastic bags per week! That's an insane amount of plastic to be giving away; especially if prices are rising.

Also, if refineries are not operating at normal capacity, but crude production is, we are basically building up a surplus in crude because we are extracting more than we are processing. If this is the case, we should see big reductions in price when the refineries come back online. Somehow though, I doubt that this will happen.

Therefore, I'm still under the impression that something else is the cause in this instance. I saw on the news that there was talks of beginning anti-trust investigations on some of the oil and gas companies. Maybe they are suspecting a lack of competition is drawing prices upward.

Whatever it is, I hope it reverses soon.