I hear it every day. When crude oil prices on Wall Street go up, they shoot like a rocket at the pumps, but when they go down, it trickles to the pumps. Well, I wondered if there is any truth to this and I was shocked to find out it's far more severe than I could have imagined. Not only do gas prices move down far slower at the pumps, the decrease in prices don't correlate to prices at Wall Street. According to results found at www.GasBuddy.com, crude oil prices peaked at $146.43 per barrel on approximately July 1, 2008. The correlating price at the pumps on Long Island averaged $4.30 per gallon. Today, crude oil prices are $92.39 per barrel and prices at the pump average $3.87 per gallon. What does this mean? In a nutshell,crude oil has decreased 36.9% over the past three years yet the price at the pump has decreased only 10%. If gas prices had come down at the same rate, we would be seeing a price per gallon of $2.71! The problem can also be illustrated in the short-term. On May 4, the price of crude oil was approximately $113.88 and the price of gas was approximately $4.26. Compared to approximate prices today, crude oil has come down 18.9% and the price at the pump has come down 9.1%.So, the price at the pump should be $3.45 instead of the $3.87 we are currently seeing. So the question is, what gives? Where are the state and county Attorney Generals? Is there an investigation taking place? And, how wide spread is this problem? I would venture to guess that this trend is consistent, to various degrees, in every community in the country. Is this just a matter of greed so the oil companies can make even more money? Or is there a sinister political plot behind this? It's not a secret that the gas prices that consumers see day in and day out affect overall consumer confidence. When people see high gas prices, they fee less secure and spend less money which harms the economy. I'm not saying there is definitely a conspiracy here, but it sure smells fishy to me. Consumers need to get loud on this issue. We need answers. Contact the Attorney Generals and demand they uncover the truth. For New York State, http://www.ag.ny.gov/ For Suffolk County, http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/departments/countyattorney.aspx For Nassau County,http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/CountyAttorney/index.html
