This is an election year. The party in power is the party in the pockets of big oil. The oil companies gouged the electorate early in the year, using the excess profit to add even more excess money into the coffers of the Republicans hoping to retain Congress. The oil companies then lower the gas prices nearer to the election to keep the electorate more content in hopes of the Republicans retaining Congress.
I think that sums up the conspiracy that may have gone on (and is still going on) this election year. Whether it's true or not, it's easy to see why people have their suspicions.
If you are going to ask if prices are being lowered to effect the election, then you should also look into if excessive profits by the oil companies this year were used to fund political campaigns at a margin similar to the profit margin that may have resulted from pricegouging. If an excess in profits lead to an excess in political contributions, then that in itself denotes a certain agenda similar to lowering gas prices to keep the electorate content.
American history is full of attempts to manipulate elections. Those who dismiss the possibility of gas prices being manipulated to effect elections are naive. It is wiser to be skeptical in our current political climate. The 'there is no grand conspiracy' comment is highly dubious.
"As an economist, I cannot speculate on the politics that may be involved, but my recent research suggests that the recent drop cannot be explained by the drop in crude prices or the change in inventories alone. From an economic standpoint, therefore, it certainly raises questions in my mind as to whether the high prices we saw this summer were in any way justified by market fundamentals. I do not believe that they were. To the extent that prices are now declining more than market fundamentals might dictate suggests to me that a decision has been made to reduce prices back to levels that might be considered more in line with the forces of supply and demand. Whether that is a politically motivated decision is up to others to decide, not me! Nevertheless, it is clear to me that the prices we witnessed this summer could not be justified by the market.â€-Peter K. Ashton, a long-time consultant on petroleum issues who has testified on gasoline pricing before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Price manipulation usually involves reducing supply to increase prices as Enron and other energy firms did earlier this decade to gouge California consumers. But if prices can be artificially upped, presumably they can be cut if the stakes warrant. The stakes in the fall election are huge, not just in who controls Congress but with what majorities. There is polling data that suggest the price of gasoline is a potent election issue; when it went sky-high recently, Bush’s popularity suffered.
The possibility that gas prices have been, or are being, manipulated to influence the election is an issue that ought to galvanize the press. The comments by Peter Ashton amount to a road map for the press. Crude oil accounts for a big chunk of the price of gas at the pump; last year on average it was 53 per cent of the cost of each gallon. If, as Ashton says, gas prices are not correlating with crude oil prices, why not?
In that connection, it would be worthwhile to know what has been happening to crude oil and gasoline prices abroad, say in Britain, France and Germany. I wonder whether Iowa’s current rank among the cheapest places for gas in the country has anything to do with toss-up races for governor and two House seats. Is cause-and-effect at work here and is there such a pattern elsewhere?
There is the possibility that the fall election is being “bought†every time a voter pulls into a gas station.
(By the way, the quote was taken from the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard)