two-part plan, not only to ease the pain that families are feeling right now but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty and lay a new foundation for true and lasting american energy independence. parenthetically, just imagine if europe didn't have to count on russian oil. russian oil. if they were energy independent. it would change the face of the nation so much. first, the pandemic. when covid struck the demand for oil plummeted, so production slowed down worldwide. because of the strength and the speed of our recovery, demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. that's why the cost of gas began to rise last year. the second route is vladimir putin. at the start of the year gas was $3.30 a gallon. today it's averaging $4.20.