costs, distribution and marketing costs, and federal/state taxes. Guess which one is the overwhelming factor, yup, global crude cost. And since it's a global commodity with prices subject to a variety of factors, nearly all of which are outside of the control of a single person/country, there's not a lot of figuring out to do. Gas prices go up and down in both democratic and republican administrations, often dramatically as the price is determined largely by factors behind their control. That's just the reality of the current US and world situation and their dependence on oil. Changing that requires long-term commitment to changing the world's consumption of/appetite for oil derived fuels and that hasn't proven to be easy.