How gas prices are like casual Friday

[TheFarseer]

Casual Friday has always made me a little mad because if we can wear jeans on Friday, why not every day? Gas has fallen 40 cents in the last month or so here to $2.59. Oil is still as high as it's ever been. People are still driving as much as a month ago. I keep seeing Escalades and H3's in transit. That pipe line in Alaska was closed. NOW, if gas can be 2.59 with all the same stuff going on, why couldn't it have been 2.59 this whole time??? That's what I want to know and I'm afraid it's because oil companies had to rake in the profits before election season but now they have to help get their benefactors elected.

[undeterred]

1. The high price of gas hurts Democratic campaigns

People have less money available to contribute, and they can't afford to drive as far. I am spending $100/month on gas for volunteering.

[TheFarseer]

2. Frankly, I wish that bush would have been

the best president in history. I wish we had stopped terror, we had plenty of cheap fuel for our cars, everyone had a great job and affordable healthcare, but that hasn't happened and now we need a change in leadership.

The price of gas has got to be hurting grassroots efforts in the western part of my state where there's maybe 200 voters in entire counties!

[liberal N proud]

3. It is the November 7th factor

It is an incumbent congress scared as hell about re-election and the sympathetic oil companies who have had it very good under the current regime want to help in any way they can.
Bring down the gas prices to comfort the people. Once the election is over and the repukes have managed to retain control by hook and a crook. The high price of gas can resume and soar even higher.

[leveymg]

4. Same thing happened last election cycle

See, http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0408/S00278.htm

Mark G. Levey: Bush's Gas Pump Ploy
Thursday, 26 August 2004, 12:05 pm
Opinion: Mark G. Levey

BUSH'S GAS PUMP PLOY

Are Major U.S. Oil Refiners and Distributors Holding Back Price Increases Until After the Elections?
By Mark G. Levey
The Bush Administration is putting a happy face on the near-doubling of the world price of crude oil to $50 a barrel during the last 18 months, a price explosion brought on by the Iraq War and other bungled adventures in petroleum producing countries. Here's the spin: it's an economic stimulus package.

On Saturday, Aug. 21, The New York Times carried an interesting article by business writer, Eduardo Porter, "An Oil Shock That Could Be an Economic Stimulus in Disguise". Porter assumes the oil price spike means the Federal Reserve is unlikely to substantially raise interest rates, which will extend the U.S. borrowing binge in spite of historically high costs of energy imports and the growing trade imbalance.

< http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/business/21oil.html>

Unless you're Vladimir Putin, a Saudi sheik, or a Halliburton executive, the economic logic in this may seem more than a little perverse.

It all comes down to a false perception that cheap energy is going to continue forever for America. The Bush Administration has some powerful friends interested in maintaining this charade. In April, the White House denied Bob Woodward's report that Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar, a long-time Bush family friend, pledged that "over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly." < http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/19/bush.oil>

While there are no reliable measures of actual Saudi crude production, oil traders are skeptical the Saudis can quickly bring large amounts of new oil to market.

SNIP