One of my favorite topics that no one cares about, US oil production and MAGAs ignorance on capitalism

Glad you referenced Pioneer Natural Resources.  In 2021, Jim Cramer interviewed Scott Sheffield, then CEO of PNR.  Cramer asked him with oil at $65 a barrel was Sheffield concerned about gas prices.  His answer was no.  He stated that his responsibility was to maximize stockholder value.  Plus, PNC was going to limit increased production in 2021 and 2022 to 5% per year.   How will Trump lower prices?  Maybe send in the Boebert and Massey families with their AR-15s and tell the executives if they don't drill more they'll look like Uvalde 5th graders.  But Trump can still do the most important thing for his voters.  He'll make America White Again.

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/175-ways-the-biden-administration-and-democrats-have-made-it-harder-to-produce-oil-gas/

Yet the oil companies CEOs say the regulatory environment is friendly in the US and their production is at record highs. Mmmm odd.

I haven't listened or read any oil company's earnings calls recently. Still, when I was they all were talking about paying down debt, and increasing shareholder value with stock buybacks and dividend increases. No one was talking about exploration or expanding drilling, they're reducing the per-barrel costs by using technology to extract more from existing wells.

With over 4,000 leased wells sitting idle (and not depleted), it's hard to sell the "drill, baby, drill" nonsense to the oil companies. They don't need to do any more exploration. They don't need to bring any more wells online. And they don't need to further increase production.

This is what the MAGAs, Trump, and dumdums like Tom don't understand. The oil companies are "mature," which means that they don't need any more capital investment right now. Incresing production would just depress prices.

They want to keep us dependent on their products and fight against EVs, and what they seem to be realizing (at last) is that every time they launch a price gouging campaign (often with the pretext of some artificial shortage), they push the American consumer a little closer to buying an EV. Having to put a $100 bill in the tank over and over and over makes an EV that more attractive as an alternative.