Is the Bush Administration Supressing the Price of Gas?
10/21/04
I guess suppressing only the vote isn't enough for this administration.
It seems that the price of gas has suspiciously dropped in the face of rocketing oil prices. This is directly counter to the tight correlation that this commodity and its derivative have experienced in past years.
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With a bit of analysis, we see that if the price of gas were to catch up with the price of oil in percentage terms (as it always has in the past), then a gallon of gas would be about $2.60 per gallon!
And check this out, it seems that Bush's approval ratings seem to move up and down right along with the price of gas. True, correlation alone does not mean causation -- but correlation coupled with good ol' common sense certainly does.
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It causes one to pause.
As I said before, the price of gas serves as a constant reminder of Bush's failures in both foreign and domestic policy. Common wisdom says that people vote their pocket. Indeed, nobody cares what the price is for a barrel of oil ...unless it filters into higher gas and energy prices. This is a material impact on the pockets of average Americans and even if some won't admit it, they blame the problem, at least in part, on the government (currently headed by George W. Bush). People also understand that the invasion of Iraq has 'something' to do with these prices. Sure, Bush supporters are unlikely to vote for Kerry because of this, but it might subconsciously give reason for some to find themselves just a touch too busy to make it to the polls on election day. (Maybe they can't afford to fill up the car to drive to the polls.)
And all this in the runup to the 2004 election. Hmmmmm.
Nah, we all know that this administration has absolutely, positively no influence in the oil and gas industry, right?
We also know that the Enron raping of California out of $30 billion was an entirely isolated incident that also had absolutely, positively nothing to do with this administration, right?
Schwarzennegger and Halliburton/Enron are all just figments of our imagination.
Nothing to see here.
Economy
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Yes it’s quite suspicious about the gas prices, I started to see that as the gas prices fell back from $2.20 in my area to about $1.80 while the barrel price didn’t fall that much and even increased as of recent. I’m not sure who is influencing gas prices like this however if we continue to try to drive a low price it will only serve to encourage people to keep guzzling gas. Consumption will continue to grow as long as people don’t feel the pinch and are forced, economically, to conserve. If it were up to the republicans we would just consume every last drop like we have an unlimited supply, low prices for everyone until we run out, then everyone will have to slap themselves and say; oops we screwed ourselves again.
Didn't someone predict a while back that gas prices would go down just before the election?
I predicted just this exact scenario when it came out that Saudi Arabia had promised to lower oil prices in the run-up to the election. I said then that if they couldn't bring down the price of oil, which I predicted they couldn't do because of 1) China's growth and 2) rampant Capitalsm, then the refiners here would hold down the price of gas, but that the price of home heating oil would shoot up because 1) it would be after the election and 2) because they could.
Hmmm. My experience today shows the same results.
I live in Houston and I paid $2.12 for supreme gas today. Regular was $1.99. (Supposedly, we have cheaper gas due to the proximity of the refineries, but that hasn't been the case for a while.) Incidentally, the gas station was in a rabid pro-Bush neighborhood. Half a mile away, I discovered that the gas station outside of a pro-Kerry neighborhood (same houses and amenities as the Republican neighborhood) was ten cents per gallon cheaper - same brand.
Next time I fill up my tank, I'll have to look for a station in a Democratic district!
Kelly,
Be glad your gas prices are only $2.12. Here in California, 1 gallon of 91 octane gasoline costs $2.60. Oh, and there are 4 refineries about twenty miles west of my location.
I sincerely doubt the Bush administration is capable of manipulating gas prices on a sub-municipal (neighborhood) level based on political polls, however you do state a strange corrolation.
Or perhaps, because California is a Democrat safe-haven, we're being punished, as Bush has no hope of ever winning the electoral votes here.
I am amazed that Kerry hasn't jumped on the higher prices of petro products as a direct result of BushCo's foreign policies. I am also amazed that the umbilical tie between Bush backers and Big Oil hasn't seen some investigative sharpeye writing a Pulitzer-worthy expose.
Who really is reaping the fortune from the higher oil prices? My sense is that the MidEasteners are getting fatter, but the real profiteers are the American companies who will quietly have to report at their stockmeetings that their earnings have tripled since the Iraq war began.
Just wait till after the election... gas prices will jump almost immediately.
Rising gas prices right after the election is a "no brainer".
OPEC prices are fixed, and the supply contracts are fixed in stone.
the cost is because of speculators in the stockmarket and the arabs get $28 per barrel - not $54
the difference goes to exxon/halliberton and the other refineries.
Why not put together a map of gas prices in each state? If all the swing states have a lower average gas price, wouldn't that be a bit odd?
http://www.gasbuddy.com/ has useful links to gasprices nationwide.
