First, let me say I have not researched this thought yet, just throwing it out there in case any of you have thought about it and have an answer...
If oil companies make a ton of money, which they do, it is fair to assume they are in the highest tax bracket for a corp. If 10 years, 5 years, 3 years, etc. how ever long you want to go back in the past decade or so you will see that oil companies did fairly well for themselves and gas was a commodity, traded on the marketplace and was at a 'reasonable' price. Flash forward to the past 2 years or so...gas has gone higher and higher and the oil companies keep making and posting RECORD profits. If all else being equal, taxes increase proportionately to the increase in sales, how could they post RECORD profits without somehow adding to their gross profit at the expense of the consumer? Price gouging, I don't think so, but I think they are using the people's fears as a means to raise more revenue. Perfectly legal and I am just pointing it out, I have no solution to fix it.
Goes back to the widget scenario for you ECON students...if it takes $8 to produce and you sell it for $10, you have a $2 profit...if the cost to produce goes up to $12, you would have to sell it for $14 to get the same profit...not $15 to get the same gross profit percentage.