The Battle Over the Blame for Gas Prices

Firms Cite Supply Issues, Deny Abuse

When Severin Borenstein drove by a Shell station in Orinda, Calif., yesterday morning, the price of unleaded gasoline was $2.99 a gallon. When he drove by five hours later, the price was $3.10 a gallon.

Borenstein has a better grasp of why that happened than most. He’s a professor of business and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and is director of the University of California Energy Institute.

“The oil side is one piece of this. The refining side is another piece of this,” he said.

Oil prices are soaring, with the price of crude at more than $70 a barrel on world markets and 37 percent higher than a year ago. That works out to more than $1.7o a gallon, more than half the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.

Washington Post