Gas Prices...

I've talked about this before but I thought I'd bring it up once again. Yesterday as I was filling up, I noticed that gas prices seem to have come down, fairly dramatically, in the last month. I was struck by this because I remembered the beginning of fall as a time gas prices typically increased, due to reformulation of gasoline for the winter months. This morning I decided to take a look to see if my recollection was correct. Below is a graph highlighting each of the August 15th to October 15th time frames from each of the last ten years. As you can see, only once did prices decrease.

So, my question is why. Is there more stability in the Middle East? Has the President waived environmental regulations related to reformulation in an effort to hold prices down? Or do the oil companies have a vested interest in helping the Republican Party retain control of our government? It is an election year. I can tell you, based on the news, the Middle East hasn't improved. Both of the other two options are more sinister. In the first, Bush would be sacrificing our environment for political gain. He wouldn't do that, would he? In the other, the oil companies would be conspiring to impact our democracy for their benefit. They wouldn't do such a thing, would they?

I'm just asking.

Click to enlarge.