[DubaiSis]

Also, and I think primarily, gas is traded on the stock market. People and corporations who buy and sell those stocks affect the price at the pump more than anything else, in my opinion. Availability of oil has virtually nothing to do with the price at the pump. The price is not based on scarcity of the product but on the scarcity of the stocks. Now, when the oil companies say they don't set the price, they are victim of the stock market, that is hugely disingenuous because they are the major stock holders. They benefit from the stock price and then again from the price at the pump. And then again from government subsidies and tax breaks.