system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELIF how the price of crude oil has plummeted yet gas prices stay above $4/gal and oil companies show record profits. 

Did refineries reduce production? Why can't the govt force them to make more? It seems like a drastic reduction in the cost of gas might sooth an aching economy.
gpt
Pretend you have a lemonade stand.  During lemon season, lemons are cheap and you can get a whole basket of them for $5.  It only costs you ten cents to make a glass of lemonade during lemon season.  The rest of the year, lemons cost $10 a basket and it costs you twenty cents to make a glass of lemonade.

You could raise and lower your prices throughout the year to match the cost of lemons, but then people might complain that a glass of lemonade cost 50c one day and dollar the next.  So instead, you average out the cost and sell your lemonade for 75c all year long.  You don't make as much when lemons are expensive, but you make up for it when they're cheap.

That's kinda sorta what the oil companies are doing.  They know the cost of crude is going to go back up, so they're keeping the price higher than it should be.  That way, when it *does* go back up, they won't have to raise prices again.

That's what they *claim* to be doing anyway.  In actuality, they're incredibly greedy and they're charging more because they know you'll pay it.  It's not like you can make you own gas or anything.