PRICE-GOUGING DOESN'T START AT THE PUMP

Call me cynical, but the Reuter's story below made me laugh. It reminded me of another laughing moment, President Bush's comment, during his State of the Union speech, declaring that "America is Addicted to Oil".

What is the Bush Administration going to do? Impose price controls? Jawbone the industry? Deploy an army of regulators to monitor price spikes?

Here IS one thing the President and his political party CAN do: investigate the oil price marketing system. They can require the pegging of wholesale price of existing stocks to something other than the speculative cost of oil based on nervousness generated by the political blather out of the White House. Hmmmm...come to think of it...THAT is something the White House can do--quit grandstanding on the international stage about Iran and Venezuela for the benefit of Rush Limbaugh the GOP's xenophobic domestic base.

US to watch for gas price-gouging: Bush
By Chris Baltimore
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he is "concerned" about high gasoline prices, and pledged that the U.S. government will keep a close watch out for profiteering.

"I'm concerned about higher gasoline prices," Bush said at a Rose Garden news conference to name new staff appointments.
"The government has the responsibility to make sure that we watch very carefully and investigate possible price-gouging, and we will do just that," Bush said in unprompted remarks about energy prices.

U.S. crude oil futures hit a record of $70.88 a barrel on Tuesday on fears of supply disruptions in Iran stemming from its nuclear standoff with the West, as well as lingering outages in Nigeria.

U.S. retail gasoline prices rose 10 cents last week to average $2.78 a gallon, up 29 cents over the last three weeks and 55 cents higher than a year ago, the government said on Monday.
Bush said high crude oil prices, rising summer driving demand and a switch to new motor gasoline standards is keeping gasoline prices high.

"It's tight supply worldwide and we've got increasing demand from countries like India and China, which means that any disruption of supply ... (is) going to cause the price of crude to go up," Bush said.

More drivers will take to the road this summer, which will also boost demand, he said.
"At this time of year people are beginning to drive more, getting out on the highways, taking a little time off," Bush said. "That increasing demand is also part of the reason the price of gasoline is going up."