Gas prices and conspiracies

Bush and the Republicans are behind a global conspiracy to drive gas prices down! Well, that is the story being intimated by the Left.

This theme, that oil companies are trying to aid the GOP, was repeated or insinuated throughout the report. In the segment, which aired at 4:40PM, anchor Wolf Blitzer introduced Schneider by noting that a form of smog reducing gasoline will be pulled "as we head into the fall and the November elections." Schneider then prefaced a sound bite from a "oil industry critic" by stating:

Schneider: "But this oil industry critic believes that what drove prices up was speculation and a report from a bipartisan congressional investigation may be having an impact."

The critic, Tyson Slocum, is a member of Public Citizen, a liberal consumer advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader. The group’s left-wing ideology is not mentioned, the only ID onscreen is of the organization’s name. At this point, Schneider asks the question: Do oil companies want prices down through the midterms? Slocum elaborated for him:

Slocum: "Eighty-one percent of their money goes to members of the Republican Party. I cannot say for sure whether or not they are influencing prices to assure that outcome, but it is, I think, more than just a coincidence that we're seeing an easing of prices at a time of running up to a very, very important election."

King implies a theory that people are capable of believing this conspiracy theory because they are, well, ignorant about economics. He points to a report on what people know about economics. The report is sad. Our schools are failing to TEACH the important stuff. I nearly aced the test questions...that means the test was easy!

Back to the conspiracy that too many of our fellow citizens are foolishly believing.

Why are the prices really going down? The nutshell, because of the fear of a supply interruption and the fear of outrageous prices in the future many companies went on a buying spree. Since the fears were put aside (Middle East calmed down, apocolyptic numbers of hurricanes did not occur, etc.) companies are now left with huge surpluses.

Brimming U.S. distillates fuel inventories rose more than expected on Wednesday to their highest level since January 1999.

Distillates, which include heating oil, rose 4.1 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a 1.9 million barrel rise among analysts polled by Reuters.

Yeah, you read that right. Inventories are 215% higher than forcast.

The conspiracy, if there must be one to pursue, is how the media and the Left perpetuated (for purely partisan purposes) the gas price fears to a point that huge overstocks became the reality. In otherwords the most plausible conspiracy is that the Left's fearmongering drove supplies too high.

The reality is that this is pure market correction. That is all. No one is to blame and no one is to get credit...as far as politicians go, that is.

********** Update: 9/21 4:00pm**********

Good Call, Tony. this reminds me of other Politicking done in 2004:

CBS 5/22/04:

Kerry, Bush Eye High Gas Prices

Mr. Bush devoted a portion of his weekly radio address Saturday to responding to the criticism that his administration is not doing enough to curb gasoline prices.

And a full 2 years later, Its still Bush's Fault that Gas Prices are high:

ConsumerAffairs.Com 5/4/06:

Consumers Blame Bush & Big Oil for Gas Prices

The most recent Gallup poll finds three in four Americans are angry with the recent increase in gasoline prices and they are blaming the oil companies and the Bush administration.

Three in 4 Americans. think its President Bush's fault. Oh, how quickely we forget:

USA Today 9/19/06:
Prices at the pump keep tumbling

A hefty 42% of Americans polled over the weekend said they think fuel prices are being manipulated by the Bush administration to help Republicans in an election year. The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

What this means, friends, is we should believe that not only are High gas prices the fault of the Bush Administration, but Low gas prices are also the fault of the Bush Administration, but they're not good, mind you. Low gas prices, are not only just a ploy of the evil Bush Administration to buy your votes, but it also hurts the EnvironMental's whole "we're running out of Oil, SUVs should be Illegal, buy Hybrids" argument.

So, if Its President Bush's Fault that prices are going down (possibly as far as $1.15 for a gallon of regular), but then also President Bush's fault for gas prices going up... You can't have it both ways. Its either one or the other. Unless you, as a Left-Wing-Nutt-Job, are just LOOKING for reasons to Blame Bush for something. Which is what I think is happening here. It's like they aren't even trying any more. Lets just Blame Bush for Everything!

Come on people. If you blame me yesterday for dropping my cell phone, then blame me today for NOT dropping my cell phone because now, all of a sudden as of this morning, not dropping my cell phone is a bad thing, I would have to question your mental capacity.