The fact that it takes more dollars to buy the same item, mostly due to inflation of our dollar. The Federal Reserve should be abolished, back our money by gold and silver, and oil will be right where it was before Bush got into office.
Look at oil in dollars now and then. Look at gold in dollars now and then. It is almost proportional. Imagine if we paid for oil in gold aka real money, not money whose value can be changed by a few men.
The reason there are record profits in the oil industry, is the same reason for the increase in housing prices. There is more money being printed into the system, so it first goes to necessities, oil and housing. Everything Is on a bigger scale, except your pay of course. The federal reserve has only been around since 1913, and we need to see that it is only now starting to really catch up to us.