cacti, i quoted you because I had originally missed your response to me and had not responded to your message...but 99% of my post was generalized towards the political messaging over gas prices, not towards your post in particular. you and i see things pretty much the same way.
economically, this is an important point. we haven't reached the point of material demand destruction yet because of summer timing more than anything. but it will happen soon. anecdotally, even the wulaw's of the world are altering their RV plans to limit his family being a menace to society only in texas instead of the entire united states. but a lot of people's behavior hasn't changed yet because of timing. it will...and the market will respond as it usually does.
it is complete bullshit and an attractive, but idiotic political messaging weapon that democrats use with some effectiveness but in all reality, it misses the mark just as bad as this republican messaging that joe biden is somehow responsible for universal economic and market principles playing out.
if it costs $10 million for a company to drill a 10,000 ft horizontal on leasehold it owns, and the forward pricing deck it uses in its economic evaluations are at $2.50 gas and it has a net to working interest 15% irr after all the capex, loe, and post-production costs, the company might drill it with a baseline expectation of making that. and if they make that, they make that. if the market moves sharply as it has and suddenly they can get $8 gas (completely unrealistic because the contracts are likely hedged), then the return they happen to make is significantly greater and it looks like they are way more profitable. that doesn't mean they are price gouging...they were just a beneficiary of the markets changing. but the risk exists the other way as well...gas goes to $1.00 (again, putting aside marketing realities), then they are fucked on the deal and lose a fortune (which no one ever talks about, including opportunistic democrats). it's just a market outcome. go look at e&p, field services, and midstream bankruptcies from 2015-2021. there are tons because they market killed them. buy a shitload of leases in a play to develop in 2013 for a billion dollars based on reserve valuations using $100 oil. go develop them in 2014 and by 2015, you have $35 oil. billion dollar asset now worth $400 million and you're bankrupt. now the pendulum has swung the other way and profitability will be up significantly when all the 2022 10-Ks hit the press. but that isn't gouging. that is a market result.
collusion and market manipulation through supply control is certainly something else and is completely legitimate. but there are no e&p companies with the type of market power to do that...not even xom, cvx, cop, shell, bp, etc... there are too many oxys and apaches and citations in the u.s. that would go gobble that up and produce. that type of manipulation comes from sovereign nations or junta decisions like saudi arabia/opec and russia.
all that said, i think what is remarkably ironic about the republican messaging on biden causing all this inflation (besides the fact that they know it works because their base is comprised of people willing to die to overturn an election on donald fucking trump's behalf or they are disingenuous clowns like IV), is that o&g prices in the u.s. are about as close as one can get to an expression of the market doing precisely what they pretend they want according to their former political philosophy of market economics before they decided that the platform would simply become whatever capricious bullshit donald trump was thinking about that day. the o&g market is pretty fucking efficient and price changes are a results of simple, intro to microeconomic variables. those variables are often maniupulated by the saudi arabia's of the world or russia invading another country but u.s. domestic energy is really, really close. so when the market is saying "hey, the demand is outpacing the supply here, time for the equilibrium to move up the curve," the republicans instead of applauding the market doing its job to create demand destruction, they say "welcome to joe biden's america." ironic.