Why gas prices have soared in America

Politicians have said for years that the American oil industry would make the country energy independent.

The United States is the largest producer of oil. Russia's invasion of Ukraine put it two spots ahead of it. Saudi Arabia is the second largest producer.

The price of gasoline went to all-time highs.

The United States does not import a lot of oil from Russia.

A spike somewhere else can be caused by a shock to oil supply and demand. It is not independent of the rest of the world if it exports more energy than it imports.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at gas price tracker GasBuddy, said that oil is a global commodity. We can remove ourselves from that situation as well. Even if we produce some computer chips here, that doesn't fix what's going on outside of our borders.

The U.S. has a strategic oil reserve. 700 million barrels are stored in underground caverns along the Gulf Coast. It's a one-month supply for the whole country. President Joe Biden has authorized the release of oil from that reserve twice before, but it has not made a difference in the long run.

Russia is one of the world's largest oil suppliers, but only 8% of U.S. oil imports come from Russia. The US uses 20 million barrels of oil a day. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says 50% of imports come from Canada.

8% is important in its own way. The domestic oil boom turned America into the world's largest producer.

Lighter, sweeter crudes which the US mostly produces tend to flow at a faster rate and have lower levels of sulfur than other types.

The problem is that many of the U.S. refineries were constructed decades ago and were built for heavier crudes. Many U.S. refineries use heavy sour crudes imported from other countries.

When oil prices go up, the U.S. can't just pump more crude. The only way to increase production is to drill. After years of boom-and-bust cycles, oil companies have been shy to spend capital and have been short of personnel.

"We have to find a way to reskill, retool, bring back those, those people back to the industry," said Krishnamoorti, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston.

Unless they drive an electric, drivers feel the pain at the pump.

To learn more, watch the video.