Actually, since summer, there is little question the dollar has gotten stronger.
Here is an interesting take on oil refining, not all of which I agree with, but has some truth. That oil companies don’t make money on gasoline, but make their money on all the other products made from oil. Which in turn helps drive the economy (my take). The author says oil companies are charging us to take gasoline off their hands as a by-product and gettiing large revenue from it. My take is that its the government that gets large revenue from gasoline sales. All those people who think shifting to solar power or wind turbines would get us off oil are full of crap, because taking us off oil would be a disaster for the economy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-drobny/the-real-economics-of-oil_b_24108.html