That's what I suspect, but I don't understand the connection. Gas prices seem to go down before every election.
Honestly? Elections? Please. $140/barrel was driven by speculation and greed. When high energy costs combined with the whole sub-prime mess bumped the economy on its head, everyone had to de-leverage. that means speculators (people betting that the price would go higher, even as wall street was crashing) had to sell out of those trades, taking the inflated values with them. Today's prices in the $60's are much closer to the "true" price of oil, and the refiners are passing that adjustment down to the gas stations. Overall, it has very little to do with politics, unless you think the Wall Street crash was politically driven and timed to the election.
Supply and Demand. OPEC was pumping out as much oil as they possibly could at the higher prices. The price trickled down to the populous and people started driving less. Long trips were not taken. Consolidated trips to go shopping etc. Well, Texaco et al were sitting on large stores and couldn't do anything with them so the price had to come down. Now OPEC wants to decrease production in order to drive the costs back up because their economy relies on gouging us. Stop driving as much and the prices will stay down. Oh yeah, where is my tinfoil hat - Election and Economy - could be.
pretty much what others are saying... Across North America, people are driving less, using less fuel. The price of oil has dropped over 50% from it's peak, but now people are realizing just how much it was costing them to fill up, and even though a tank of gas is now back in a realistic price range, nobody wants to pay for it.
I think a big part has been the focus in the news about alt. energy. Oil producers want it to be very affordable so the drive for alt. energy dies down.
i saw an article during the summer that a study was done to show a large percentage of people were already driving less and less, mostly because they couldn't afford it. why didn't gas drop then? i never thought id see 2.50$ much less 2.29$ etc... stock pile gas?
Yes, if you have the means to store it safely. And not "in case we all run out", but to supply you with fuel during interruptions, as were seen in the SE a couple months ago. Shortages, volatility in the market, and supply disruption are all in the cards for our future, I fear. If you're really serious about understanding Oil, go read at The Oil Drum | Discussions about Energy and Our Future. There are several articles that deal with Peak Oil, and while I believe the timing of "peak" is debatable, there are very good essays on what the peak will look like... those things I just mentioned are among them, and the pricing/availability of energy literally drives so much of our lives, it's impossible to disconnect it from every other aspect of modern western society. Educate yourself, and take whatever measures you see fit to be prepared.
Gas always drops a little in the fall about the time when they change "blends." Now is probably a good time to rotate your gas stocks and put fresh up.
