What's 'up' with the price of gas?

[DaemonSeid]

I know and trust one of you GC'ers to give a concise answer, so here is my question.

(Keep in mind when I talk about the prices I am quoting prices mainly in my area what they were and what they are as I know prices elsewere could be a bit different.)

I am curious about why the gas prices didn't really skyrocket this summer (not that I am complaining because it's a good thing!) like they have within the past 6 to 7 years. I seem to remember that right before Katrina hit, the gas prices were already starting to climb to the $2.85 mark here in MD. Days afterwards when some of the oil wells were knocked offline, gas went over the $3.05 mark and I remember this happening even as me and one of my friends was in a gas station pumping gas with a line of cars behind us, the gas attendants were changing the prices. I also remember my parents were on their way to Atlanta and once they got there they told me that gas was somewhere around $4.54.

Then during the election year, as far as I remember there was no major disaster (correct me if I am wrong) but I DO remember that one of the biggest issues during the election was getting America to become less dependant on foreign oil, and that summer I do remember paying nearly $3.35 a gallon for gas and then right after the elections, gas DROPPED to nearly $2.35 a gallon. Places like Wawa and a few other no name places were the places to go for gas that cheap as the average price was somewhere around $2.43 to $2.47.

With the BP disaster this year, I was sort of expecting another insane climb of prices (as an excuse to what happened) but it didn't really happen. Gas runs between $2.59 to $2.75 a gallon in most places, with some of the BP stations being a bit more on the high end. The prices has stayed that way most of this summer with very little increase or decrease and it's not as big of an issue as it was back in 2008.

So, maybe I am answering my own question, but is it because of BP's own disaster, that just their prices are a little bit higher than everyone else?

What makes this year different that gas hasn't gone out of the roof price-wise like it did 2 years ago?

Thanks guys.