1775 Oil Change

Nice to see gas prices are finally going down. Isn't it funny what a lag there is between market pressure to go up and lack of market pressure to go down.
Odd, since it's so much more work to inflate a tire, but so easy to make it burst. But gas prices aren't like a bubble. They're more like a controlled hardening of concrete. When it comes time to make them go away it takes a lot more jackhammering to destroy the oil-igarchs precious road to riches.
The truth is, since March the world's been producing more oil each day than it consumes and that's one of the main reasons oil prices have gone done to below $90 a barrel. Global consumption has declined by nearly 2 million barrels a day.
According to classic supply-and-demand theory, that should mean gas prices would drop off precipitously. After all, they go up pretty fast when any crisis threatens, and anticipated demand drives them sky high.
And it's even odder how high prices lingered here, in the Prius capital of the world, though demand was even less. Sure, there was the story of refinery capacity in Bellingham. But hey, gas prices were really cheap in other states, so if an gas truck filled up on fuel there, both in its tanks and in its own fuel tanks, they could have trucked north and still made a profit.
But prices didn't go down until Senator Cantwell threatened an investigation. Because our prices were near what they were when oil was $150 a barrel, even though it’s currently $86 a barrel.
One week later, on Sunday the 17th, I paid $4.05 a gallon. On Monday the 18th I paid $3.89.
Sometimes even threatened government intervention works.
Because sometimes "free" markets cost more than they should.
America, ya gotta love it.