It came down this Fall in spite of the usual rise blamed on heating oil. That was clearly the elections. (Remember when the pipeline went down and prices went up? And then down again, even though the pipeline was still partially shut? They remembered the elections.)

The last time it came down like that was after the Senate changed to Democratic control and investigations started. Bush blamed a rise on no increase in refinery capacity and high demand and said the US would have to learn to live with high prices.

Then Jeffords. Prices dropped.

My guess is the market will respond to two things. (Obviously the demand for heating oil isn't legitimate, only an excuse, or they would have risen already.)

One, the elections are over for a couple of years, and the temptation to increase prices as far as possible, unrelated to capacity or competition, will be there.

Two, the Democratic majority could initiate an investigation into how the companies manipulate the markets and the oil companies might want to avoid that.

I dunno. We'll see.

Arf