It's the old story of supply and demand. There is no (current) shortage in the oil supplies like during the embargo of the '70s when we had to wait in line for a limited amount.
I don't have to wait, I don't have any limits on how much gasoline I can buy. There is no shortage.
The prices are driven by market forces, That is; "sell as much of it as we can for however much people will pay".
Opening new sources of crude will not affect prices since a shortage is not the cause of current prices.
With just a few corporations controlling the fuel for the entire nation; they have formed an essential monopoly and performed and end run around the price fixing prohibitions of the anti-trust laws.
That's what Congress is supposedly trying to sort out.
