On November 4, 2006, the Saturday before Election Day, I wrote this diary in which I said
Gas prices are about to start going up, right after the election
. . .
Gasoline prices have fallen suspiciously far in the months prior to the election, following a wave of public discontent over obscenely high prices that corresponded with a free fall in GOP politicians' popularity.
So, how are we doing at the gas pump today?
If you drive a car, you know the answer: Only four weeks after the election, with no need to keep the prices down and the voters less angry at the GOP, we are already paying 10 to 20 cents per gallon more for gasoline than we were paying the weekend before the 2006 election.
Some statistics after the flip.
LosAngelesGasPrices.com is a nice resource for tracking current prices at the pump. The site includes this gasoline price database and chart creator to track gasoline prices over periods from a month to three years, in metro areas in the U.S. and Canada.
In my November 4 diary, we looked at average retail gas prices in Los Angeles, Richmond VA, and Kansas City MO. Between August 8 and November 3 of this year, average gasoline prices dropped suspiciously -- 88 cents per gallon in Los Angeles, 94 cents per gallon in Richmond, 96 cents per gallon in Kansas City.
Now let's use the gas price database to check the price increases over the last month in those same cities:
Los Angeles average retail gasoline price per gallon on November 5, 2006: $2.32
On December 4, 2006: $2.43
Change: Increase of 11 cents per gallon
Richmond on November 5, 2006: $2.03
On December 4, 2006: $2.18
Change: Increase of 15 cents per gallon
Kansas City on November 5, 2006: $1.99
On December 4, 2006: $2.18
Change: Increase of 19 cents per gallon
At the current rates of increase, U.S. gasoline prices will be back to their outrageous August 2006 levels by early April 2007. No worries about voter outrage against the GOP, though -- the next national election will still be over 18 months away at that point.
Draw your own conclusions. Or just take the poll.