RogerT said:
The $4/gal stories were to get you prepared to be "happy" with
$3.50 while they stuck it to us. Now with the elections coming up
and many congress critters feeling the heat they're telling the
oil companies to suck it up and cool it.
Gas prices go down after every single Labor Day simply because demand is lower. How does that affect prices? Economics 101 explains supply and demand and free market competition and how it affects prices.
Since elections happen after Labor Day, it's common to assume the price drops are due to politicians telling the oil companies what to do for the purposes of securing votes.
The only ways the government can affect gas prices is to add or remove taxes on the product, or provide incentives to the oil producing companies. The only incentives available to the government are tax breaks of one kind or another, or reduced regulations.
If a politician approached a business person and said, "I need you to put your price here, even if you lose money, so I can get re-elected," the business person would say, "Good luck finding your next job." There are far more pressures on oil executives to keep stock prices up and profits up than any politician could ever muster.
So, when you vote this fall, remember which politicians want to increase the longevity of our oil supplies in long term ways, and which ones hope to grab votes by citing their record of using the strategic reserve and blaming oil companies for factors out of oil companies' control that force crude, and therefore gas prices, up.
The former can change the energy picture, and the latter simply rely on those very news media stories to manipulate public opinion about a subject that is complex, resulting in folks who believe politicians have oil companies over a barrel, and can cajole them into artificial prices in order to get re-elected. So, for all the voters who truly believe there are political forces manipulating the market for political gain, and choose to vote for politicians who point this out to them, then those voters should take a pause and ask themselves.."So who's actually manipulating me to get my vote?"