'Unconscionable': Oil expert slams some Midwest gas stations for keeping prices high as costs plummet

On Thursday, Patrick de Haan, a Chicago-based oil industry expert and longtime head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, took to Twitter to call out some gas stations in the Midwest for not passing along their recent cost savings to consumers at the pump.

"Pretty unconscionable that some gas stations in the Great Lakes are holding at the same price they had a week ago, meanwhile their cost has plummeted significantly," wrote de Haan, adding "also props to the stations that have gone down 20c/gal or so in the last week."

According to de Haan's analysis, these offending stations notwithstanding, the reduced costs are being passed to consumers in some areas, with retail gas prices in Michigan alone dropping from an average of $4.20/gal last week to just under $4.14/gal today.

Gas prices in the United States have seen a massive increase since the record lows in late 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced record numbers of people indoors and vehicle miles traveled collapsed, reducing demand for fuel. The rebound of demand, coupled with a reduction of capacity at U.S. oil refineries and the Russian invasion of Ukraine leading to embargoes cutting off Russian energy products from Europe, has sent gas prices soaring worldwide.

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Republicans attempted to make soaring gas prices a focus of the 2022 midterm elections, blaming the surge in costs on a supposed unwillingness of President Joe Biden to allow oil drilling. The president has spoken in support of a gradual transition from fossil fuels as part of his long-range climate plan, although the Biden administration actually issued more oil permits than former President Donald Trump did in his first year, and oil production is now roughly 1 million barrels per day higher than it was when Biden took office.

Democrats, meanwhile, have accused the oil industry of price-gouging, pointing to soaring profits reported by oil companies like ExxonMobil, and to the fact that oil companies themselves have made strategic decisions not to increase oil exploration, or build more refineries, even when government permits allow it.