Gas Prices Jump Again, But Why?

Where's the outrage? That's what I frequently wonder as I once again pay $4 for a gallon of gas. It wasn't that long ago that gas cost $2 or less per gallon. And if it hit $2, we'd all complain. (Remember those useless gas station boycotts?)

And yet, the oil companies managed to fairly quickly get us all used to the idea of paying nearly $4 a gallon for gas, using the same old tired excuses. And then posting record profits. You gotta hand it to them, it was completely brazen -- and it worked. Mark Lacter over at LA Biz Observed asks the same questions:

Forget about oil prices tumbling - the gasoline market marches to its own, often-mysterious drummers, which is almost always bad news for consumers. It's certainly been that way over the past week: An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is $3.971, up almost 13 cents, according to the government's survey. Predictably, there are explanations: refinery problems, demand during Labor Day weekend, the storms back east. In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, it's always something. The problem with these explanations is that the price of oil has been plummeting for some time (crude futures rose today). Last I checked, you get gas from oil. If oil goes down, you'd expect gasoline to follow. At least you wouldn't expect it to go up 13 cents, right?

Will we ever learn the true secret of gas prices? The world may never know...