While that's good news for drivers here, it's also a little disconcerting because it fuels suspicions about the capriciousness of the oil industry and about the motives of some politicians. Much of the wild fluctuation in prices can be explained by the simple theory of supply and demand. Still, that explanation goes only so far. But the old rules apparently no longer apply. Gas prices in the Midwest are now lower than in the Gulf States, just as prices here were higher a month ago than in West Coast states.
Observers say the price plunge here was caused by a big infusion of gas recently.
Some industry officials said then that they lacked the capacity to produce adequate amounts of the new blend of reformulated gas with ethanol. But they have only themselves to blame. The rapid decline in prices also shows the folly of looking for quick fixes to short-term problems. Fortunately, cooler heads mostly prevailed. None of those ideas is a sensible, long-term solution.