Inflation here? gas/grocery prices just continue to climb

I didn't say it was a government edict. It was a result of the Covid complete shutdown of the economy. Demand disappeared and domestic oil stopped producing because they literally couldn't give away the oil they were producing. When the world started to open up last January, domestic companies were undermanned to begin producing again so the US had to rely on OPEC. Underemployment is still a problem, but companies are trying to get back to normal.

The only government edicts that have hampered bringing back production are the temporary suspension on new oil and gas leases on federal lands (but a judge blocked that last month, so companies should be able to pick up that slack again quickly), and the blocked petroleum sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Finishing and opening the Keystone XL pipeline would help, but with all the complications of US and Canadian companies that had to stop work on that, lay off the workers, and get rid of the equipment, I'm not even sure that can be done at this point.


I agree with part of what you said, but your first post was phrased in a way that would lead any reasonable person to believe you were asserting it was because we were forced to stop producing due to government intervention. "Allowed to start producing again" is what you said.

Not unless domestic oil is allowed to start producing again like they were before January of last year.


New leases take years to matter.
Keyston XL wasn't going to relieve pressure on prices and wasn't complete anyway. Moreover it's government taking of private property for business profits and opposed so much that it had no business ever being approved.