the cost of gas is going upppp!

I was just watching the "news" on TV. They were showing how the price of gasoline is rapidly shooting upward. I have been hearing that we will probably be paying $5 per gallon by summer, but in Los Angeles, it is already more than $6 per gallon in some places.
What do you think is pushing up prices? I believe that the gas companies are going to charge whatever they can get. We will all cry and moan and call the oil companies BAD names, but I'm sure they will be crying all the way to the bank.
Is the cost of gas going to hurt your survival preps? Are you going to have less to spend for survivalist goods because of this fat money grab by the gas companies?
How about driving to work? Is it going to be more expensive to commute? Fortunately, I'm planning to retire in the next couple of months, so commuting won't matter much to me. And, even while I do work, I only live 2 miles from my job, so hopefully, it won't hurt me too much. But, some of my off-spring have to drive many miles each day. I'm concerned for them.
And, how about AntiBling? I believe that he has a long commute and it is going to hurt him in the pocket book. I hope not, but I fear so.
I guess that part of our preps is preparing for the eventual gas shortages that are looming in our future. I guess we never will run out of things to worry about as long as we are on this earth.

I was just wondering: If the price of gas continues to rise, how will that affect your prepping plans? It will definitely leave us with less money to devote to survival activities. I think that we will need to get what we can before it's too late.

Oil is sold by the 40 gallon barrel plus approximately a dollar per gallon for processing, refining, transport, station markup, etc.

So, an oil price of $80 per barrel yields a raw cost of $2 + $1 to get it into gas and to your station so $80 barrel should be about $3 per gallon. The current price is actually a bit over $100 so $3.50 is about where it should be. Of course the US having 3 carrier strike groups in the Straits area and the saber rattling with Iran is not helping.

What really concerns me is that the Enterprise, scheduled for moth-balling any day now was sent over there. There are 2 possible scenarios (out of many) that really scare me. Us stages a false flag attack against the carrier injuring but not destroying it and uses that lie as an excuse to invade/attack OR Iran actually does attack it hoping for the infamy they would get by taking it out. Regardless, if either of those two actually play out, $6 could be considered cheap.

No matter how high the cost of gas goes, people will continue to buy it. And, they will continue their wasteful ways of driving. I drive for mileage. Therefore, I do not race others to the next red light. But, I constantly see people driving big gas hogs and driving fast and hard. This is a terrible waste of gas, but I guess that they think they can afford it. I'll pass, thank you!