Desert Dweller, if you live anywhere near the Phoenix area, you know all about our huge price spike that occurred when a pipeline in Tucson broke. The rate of increase was amazing to watch. Prices climbed 50 cents between sign changes and those were occurring every hour. We struggled with lines for a week or so and suddenly the pipe was fixed, inventories were back up to pre-crisis levels and guess what. The prices never recovered and the drops were excruciating slow prompting the attorney general to begin looking at price gouging legislation.

The truth is that there was no political advantage at the time to give relief back to the consumer. There were no elections forthcoming and opportunists seized extra profits while they could. They took advantage of human nature knowing that once you pay a high price for awhile you tend to get used to it and, if you see a gradual and small amount of relief you tend to forget how far it's gone up.

So, it's obvious to me the industry trend is to bring relief back to the consumer extremely slowly when crisis conditions improve. That's not what we're seeing today. The rate of recovery is unprecedented. The price changes remind me much of what we see when they rise due to pressure.

My only explanation for this, given the political advantage to be gained by the Republicans who are greatly and publicly in bed with the oil industry, is that there's a manipulation going on. As I've stated in other posts I don't call this a conspiracy since one doesn't have to break laws or even keep it hidden to do this. Also one has to involve very few people to make it happen. A few phone calls. Some subtle pressure by CEO's and oil cartel leaders to drop prices and the damage is done.

Anyone who truly believe this drastic drop in prices at the pump in the leadup to an election doesn't have a political component to it is seriously misguided. In many ways, I was happy to see gas prices stay around $3.00/gallon since my commute contained less days being sandwiched between giant high-rise trucks and SUVS. It was refreshing to see so many people switching to smaller and more economical models. It will be interesting to see now how many people pull their gas guzzlers back out of mothballs and start wasting gas again if prices continue to fall. About the time they get comfortable with those behemoths, the election will be over and the runup of prices will begin again.

Art