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The evil oil companies are at it again. The price of a gallon of gas has jumped by more than 30 cents in the past month. The gasoline gougers are busy reaping windfall profits.

It's time for a congressional investigation! New legislation must be introduced! The administration must confront corporate thieves!

No, wait. That all happened last summer. As gas prices rose, customers blamed gas station owners and oil producers alike. Politicians moved from somnolence to frenzy at record speed. Never mind that there were many reasons for rising prices: Officeholders and candidates alike campaigned to stem energy costs.

Even supposedly pro-business Republicans joined the parade. House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) and Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wrote the president to demand investigation and prosecution of "anyone who is trying to take advantage" of the tightening world energy market. President George W. Bush agreed, explaining: "The first thing is to make sure that nobody is getting cheated."

Congress targeted gasoline prices, company profits, corporate taxes, federal royalties, and industry investments. State Attorneys General opened another front.

But prices soon fell dramatically, and remain well below their peak, when a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline ran about $3.00. The price of crude oil dropped by 35 percent from its high. If the energy producers controlled prices, why did prices decline?

To help the Republicans in the November election, ran one theory. Last October CBS anchor Katie Couric asked: "Gas is the lowest it's been all year, a nationwide average of $2.23 a gallon. It hasn't been that low since last Christmas. But is this an election-year present from President Bush to fellow Republicans?" If so, why didn't Big Oil boost prices the day after last November's election? Why wait even an hour to collect those windfall profits?

Instead, a couple months ago crude oil prices were still falling. Indeed, gasoline prices actually peaked in September 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Why didn't the companies use that natural catastrophe as an excuse to keep prices high?

It's even harder to understand why the oil industry allowed prices to drop more than a quarter century again when President Ronald Reagan killed price controls. That should have been the signal to energy producers to raise prices even further, looting and pillaging the entire population. Instead, prices dropped dramatically.

Perhaps the conspiratorial corporate behemoths were working to reelect Reagan. But if so, they should have jacked up gasoline prices after the 1984 election. Instead, prices fell even faster through 1987 and remained low for years.

Indeed, the price of gasoline didn't rise above its 1981 level until 2000. Nor have energy prices been a friend to former oilman George W. Bush, as one would expect if the companies were manipulating the market. Prices have risen fairly steadily from 2002 on, with sharp declines after the post-Katrina run-up and since the fall. In particular, fuel prices actually rose throughout most of 2004, with gasoline breaking $2.00 a gallon before the election.

What gives?

Simple. Energy prices are set by complex interactions in a global marketplace. No one actor or set of actors controls prices.

The price run-up last year was a consequence of many factors. John Townsend, a spokesman for the American Automobile Association, observed: "There were a lot of little cuts that all added up to a lot of bloodletting at the pump."

Among the causes: rising oil consumption in developing states, particularly China and India; continuing problems with Iraqi oil production; the unsettling impact of the Iran nuclear controversy; political instability in leading African and South American oil producers; limited U.S. refinery capacity; persistent production and refining problems left over from Katrina; the segmented gasoline market, requiring production of multiple "boutique" fuels; and the replacement of MTBE as a fuel additive.

topics:
Taxes, Business, Iraq, Iran, Africa, Energy, Oil