[Big Dave]

A lot of it is hysteria.

A lot of it is taxes. Note on the US "temperature" map the colors forentire states tend to be similar. Every state taxes gas and diesel differently.

If New Source Review had not been such a mad-dog government program for the last thirty years the US might have built some refineries away from the Gulf Coast. We'll never know for sure because simply building a refinery anywhere is nearly impossible. So about a third of all hurricanes take out some infrastructure. There is no redundancy anymore so a third of the hurricanes disrupt production/refining and since there is no slack the fear of shortages drives up local prices.

Maybe the hysteria isn't all that hysterical. A forgotten hurricane - Ivan - played hob with the production/refining system a few years back. I think a lot of people know in their gutthat there is no redundancy and look out for #1.