…you do know those things were also there when gas was cheap, right?

There hasnt been a massive spike in consumption since 2019, there's been a slump in production and availability. One that started with biden halting all new domestic drilling and cancelling keystone XL and accelerated by the ban on russian exports.

Take away those factors and you'd be back to 2019 prices, and our leaders wouldnt be begging the saudis to up production.

Not to mention if anything covid was contributing to low gas prices by supressing demand and driving down gas consumption.

This gas shortage is precisely down to the world trying to get back up to speed in covid's aftermath only to be tripped up by two of the world's net energy exporters sabotaging thier own export capacity within a year of eachother.