Lisa Margonelli: Time to shift gears, step on gas myths

Whew, gas prices are high. Higher than they’ve ever been. During the week of May 21, the Lundberg Survey, a biweekly gas price tracking service, put the average cost of a gallon of unleaded at $3.18. Adjusted for inflation, that topped the 1981 price spike that had held the record for 26 years. Prices have since slipped a bit, but many predict they’ll stay up near the stratosphere all summer. Wondering why? The answers may not be what you think. Here are five common myths about why we’re paying so much at the pump.


● Those evil oil companies are gouging us.

Whenever gas prices soar, Republicans and Democrats join hands to virtuously denounce “gas gouging” by greedy oil companies. Last month, the House passed legislation against this supposed scourge of the pump. Too bad it’s so hard to find evidence that gouging is jacking up prices.

Today’s high prices are the result of a collision among consumers’ increasing demand for gas, a shortage of oil-refining capacity and 50 states with different regulations that make it hard to trade gas across state lines.

So why protect consumers from this vaporous phantom? Politics. More than 80 percent of Americans believe high gas prices are the result of oil company shenanigans rather than market forces, according to the Opinion Research Corp. So passing legislation against gouging is a bit of theater that allows the political class to avoid the hard work of getting Americans to use less gas.

Alany Times-Union