Gas Price Hikes Defy Explanation

I’ve tried to temper my anger about recent gasoline price rises and conspiratorial suspicions about the causes. So I read Jim Flanigan’s “New Rules, Industry Changes to Push Gas Prices Higher” [May 6] with the hope that some rational exposition would calm my soul.

Not so, unfortunately. The technical explanations, such as the cost of switching additives, were concluded with the statement “ . . . not to mention 8 cents to 11 cents a gallon added to the price of gas at the pump.”

I’ll see your 11 cents and raise you 20. In the last three weeks, posted prices at the pumps have risen about 30 cents in my neighborhood. Last week, I watched as prices rose 4 cents per day over a span of five days.

The point is the tangibles written about cannot come close to explaining the rise already witnessed, nor the threats of $2.50 to $3.50 a gallon later in the summer. The rest must come from the “supply and demand” part of the equation, right? But I doubt that. Can anyone provide realistic figures showing that Americans are expected to consume two to three times as much gas this summer as last?

David Crain

Reseda