Do you think there's any other coincidental events or trends that would have the same effect?

 

Well of course there could be other factors. The price isn't dictated by just a few things, there are hundreds of things that effect the price of gas. I am just throwing out some ideas of why I think the price of diesel hasn't gone down but gas has.

 

in no way is this post meant to be political...

it's a little know fact that 90%+ of all refineries in US are owned by a tiny handful of companies. further these few companies have a really big problem of too showing too much net profits. most have made 30X net profits and need to spend, spend, spend....

they are running out of things to spend it on. witness the new fleet of vehicles and all sorts of capital improvements.

the 10% that's independants are being swallowed up at an alarming rate. the oil companies are charging high prices because they can!

wouldn't you do the same? no conspircies are needed to control pricing. for all practical purposes, Standard oil that was busted up early 1900's was allowed to re-assemble back together.

the resulting oil companies are huge multi-nationals that span across several states. they control pricing at will. for all practical purposes they are effective monopolies.

the same thing has happened to ma bell. It too has been allowed to re-assemble back together. monoply and anti-trust no longer is on the same page.

these mergers happened several years ago. honey moon is over.
the only thing the mega companies fear is a recession (we had a negative last quarter) and political pressures. but it will be much harder to take these huge companies apart. than to put together.

a close friend is a manager for a refinery company. he's told me details that you will never see in print on a news network. speaking of news networks. those too were allowed to consolidate. a tiny handful of companies own almost all the news outlets in the US. rules that prevented one company to own too many news sources within a geogrphic area were thrown out.

all news channels within the US are tightly controlled with the sole exception of the web.

again this is no way a right or left issue, but an american one. sorry to say it's past tense folks... our major industries are firmly in control of a by few companies. legal monopolies and we are reaping the high prices across the board.

pricing has nothing to do with supply/demand and has not for sometime.

IMHO prices have dropped recently is because of two items these large companies fear. recession and polictical pressures are working in tandem. (negative last quarter and upcoming elections)