When gas was $4 when I lived in Oregon, Diesel was close to $5 / gallon. It was not *that* long ago, Diesel was the cheapest option for fuel, then it seems everyone and their brother "discovered" diesels got better fuel economy and were cheaper to run and then BAM, diesel became the most expensive almost overnight. I know $5 / gallon fuel hurt our business. Think of all the medium and heavy duty trucks rolling around on 55-200 gallons. That shit hurts when you fill it at $4 or 5 / per. Even when it dropped down into the sub-$4 range it wasn't rosy.
I understand that pre-Biden, when oil was high, it meant a lot of Americans were making good money in oilfield jobs. Doesn't mean it didn't hurt a lot of others who were trying to get by though. Now in Biden's America - high oil & gas prices just mean we're getting fucked even harder, because he killed oilfield jobs while making his pals in the middle east rich again. If we're paying $2+ a gallon here, there are lots of places already paying $3 or close to it. Where I came from in Oregon, we typically ran ninety cents or a dollar per gallon higher than we're paying in Texas. They hate oil & gas up there, and the fuel tax is quite a bit higher there to boot, which is *supposed* to pay for roads, but the roads are equally shitty there as they are here.
I'd love to see American oilfield jobs come back strong, while remaining energy independent, and *not* getting hosed at the pump - I'm thinking its one of those "you can have two, but not three" scenarios. I wouldn't complain too much about higher prices if it meant American jobs were secure, but I think that ship is taking an extended tour at this point.
Hear what you are saying. But today I cannot be overly concerned about the left coast.