Oil companies see the writing on the wall. Make no mistake, they ARE coordinating to raise prices before the election.
The price of gas isn't about Iran. It's not about Greece. It's not about high demand in the US for gas. It's not about global economic instability.
It's about the US losing 4% of its refining capacity since December because demand for gas is down and oil companies closed down large plants in order to jack up prices. End of story.
Don't make this more complicated than it is.
It's oil companies trying to throw the election for Republicans:
Prices for Brent crude have gone up, but demand for gasoline in the U.S. is at a 15-year low. That means refineries haven’t been able to pass on the higher prices to their customers.
As a result, companies have chosen to shut down a handful of large refineries... Since December, the U.S. has lost about 4 percent of its refining capacity
The oil companies will always conspire to unseat good Democrats like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. Their coordination in shutting down plants at the same time should come as no surprise in 2012.
Republicans send our kids to die in the desert to make money for oil companies. Obama represents a direct threat to their ability to trade our kid's lives for their profits.
That's what this is really about. Payback. Politics. Profit.
Oil companies being oil companies.
Every American should be outraged about the price of gas: outraged at Republicans and oil companies for purposefully ripping us off during an economic recovery for their own political purposes. They've been trying to ruin the economy for 3 years. This is just part of the same plan.
And PS, next time a Republican tells you the oil industry doesn't have enough refining capacity... yeah. Uh uh. The oil industry doesn't WANT more refining capacity. They want our money. They aren't going to design their industry to keep prices low. If we let them build new more profitable refineries, they'll just close down older ones and the prices will stay high. That's how they roll. Do people really want lower gas prices in the US? The only realistic way to get there is to help green technologies make oil a redundant product with lots of competitors.