I remember looking for a reason as gas prices rose and rose in the Puget Sound and all over the country.  Suddenly, it might be worth it to drive 18 miles to save twelve cents a gallon when you drive a truck with a 24 gallon tank.  But I never found a reason- there were no crude shortages, there were no refinery issues, there was no reason reported for this massive and sharp increase.  Yet the increase drove prices of everything else up sharply, too, due to shipping costs of, well, everything, pretty much.  But no reason was ever given. So what happened?