This morning in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Up 40 cents in two days.

The culprits: Rising crude oil prices, slowing output at refineries that are undergoing maintenance, and low supplies of gasoline.

are the same reasons that we get every time they raise prices.
Tell us the truth....they want more profits. Come on, most of the refineries shut down simultaneously for maintenance? Sure..
It is usually because the banksters "buy" (without money of course) options on oil, betting on a price increase, which naturally causes a price increase.
Most people know this (if they pay any attention at all) yet we have proven quite easy to screw, even though...no means no...
I really like the sig line "some days it isn't even worth chewing through the restraints", we should adopt this slogan until WE actually start "committing acts of civil disobedience on a large scale" (Chris Hedges) daily. Occupy everywhere until real, positive change occurs.

The fleecing of America by the largest frauds in the world. The oil companies!!!

What does our beloved Congress do about it?

The equivalent is a rise of .76 cents per gallon, to $5.10/gallon. That's for low grade.

Bush, Cheney, the Iraq war, all gone and yet 2010 to 2013 winter prices have been nearly as high as summer 2008 peak-driving prices

This graph is a little old, but it's still makes the point. The correlations isn't perfect, but they do tend to track pretty close.

Whether it was the Bush gas bumper stickers in 04, or Fox News' coverage of gas prices today, I've always though both parties would be smart just to lay off gas prices.

Because in reality if you're saying gas prices track the DOW what you're really saying is that higher gas prices show better stock returns, and better stock returns are not exactly an albatross to hang around a politician's neck.

That said, I understand that in today's bumper sticker politics facts don't really matter.

is a global commodity and unless the President nationalizes the US oil industry, the idea that any President can control the prices is silly.

But you are correct ... the truth is now open to interpretation.

Not as long as the US continues to import ten million barrels of oil a day, it won't.

imports ... but the overall impact would not be to make US oil prices drop to $1.80 or anything like that.

But "energy independence" means being a country that does not need to import energy.

the US exports refined petroleum products (refined from oil that was imported in the first place).

Was there any explanation about why this is so from the place where you got the graph?

My first assumption would be that if the DOW is up then probably production is up so industry, especially transportation of goods, is up and that means more fuel and oil are consumed causing prices to rise as oil supplies dwindle to some degree.

But what are the people/economists who are much smarter than me saying causes this correlation?

I try not to drive much.

Last month I saw prices as low as $3.49, while I paid $3.77 on Friday, have seen it as high as $3.84.

I saw $4.19 for premium last night...

on the backs of the middle class.