One consequence of record gasoline prices is that the oil industry is no longer able to claim with a straight face that crude oil prices are responsible for inflation at the pump.
In today’s Contra Costa Times and last night on KGTV in San Diego, the oil lobby responded to our criticism by acknowledging that oil companies don’t have enough supply to meet the demand.
Of course, the Western States Petroleum Association will never admit it’s their members’ fault in a free market. They blame environmentalists and consumers. But at least there’s widespread acknowledgment that high gasoline prices are being driven by domestic supply shortages, not OPEC. That’s a far cry from the aggressive advertising just a few weeks go by the API that blamed high crude oil costs, OPEC and international instability.
Here’s the new "crude gap" numbers as reported in the Contra Costa Times:
By some measures, the cost of gasoline is rising nearly five times as fast as crude oil, the vital energy resource that underpins the price of motor vehicle fuels and other products. So far in 2007, East Bay gasoline prices, as measured by the California State Automobile Association, are up about 31 percent. West Texas crude oil is up 6.4 percent in 2007.
Legislative change needs to focus on domestic supplies, not international scapegoats.