"Make them pay!"

They keep running these spots in the local breaks on the Today show. Each morning I see it, with that shot of the gas sign screaming $3.99 I want to laugh:

We have heard much in recent months about the plot by oil companies to gouge consumers at the pump. Now, I am writing to report another insidious plot on the part of Big Oil. They are scheming to lower prices.

"The only place they have to go is down," says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). "We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving."

Which of course begs the question why gas here on the Central Coast is over $3 a gallon. Farther north it's already under that and farther south as well. Something about the SB-Lompoc-Santa Maria-SLO corridor...

Such a thing has more to do in actuality with the ridiculous regulatory restrictions on fuel blends mixing with demand in the most car-dependent state in the Union. Even so, gas is no longer closer to $3.50 than $3 a gallon and will continue to fall for another few months.

It all leaves me wondering if the voters of California will swallow the "soak the rich" rhetoric or believe their eyes when it comes to the fate of Prop 87.