It's time to stop buying from these people and stick with our guns on this boycott.

When Clinton was in office the price of gas was very low. Bush is in office, now the price of gas is very high. Do the profit monger oil companies hate Bush so much that they will destroy this countries economy just to make him look bad.

An excellent post. Thanks for contributing, you are 100% correct. These corporate greed merchants understand the weak underbelly of capitalism, the manipulation of supply and demand to drive up prices and profits. They do it very well and it's made easier for them when politicians enable it.

It happened in the 1970s, with what was called at the time "the energy crisis," when oil companies proclaimed that there was a shortage of petroleum, delayed shipments of fuel to service stations, and raised gas prices. When the prices rose to suit the oil companies, suddenly there was an abundance of petroleum. It was later learned that there never was a shortage of petroleum and that the so called "crisis", shortage of fuel, and long lines at the gas pumps were deliberately instigated by the oil companies in order to drive up fuel prices, and thereby oil company profits.

The same thing is happening now. I said at the outset that it was a ruse by the oil companies--the greed mongers--to drive up U.S. fuel prices. The record profits of Exxon Mobil confirm my assessment.

Near the beginning of this price hike campaign, which began just after hurricane Katrina (using the storm as an excuse to implement the campaign), a comment was made that we should not complain, because people in Europe were paying the equivalent of $5.00 per gallon for gasoline. No doubt the comment was meant to somehow placate us.

My reaction was, "So what?!? If Europeans want to bend over and take it, that's their problem."

I never really thought that Americans would stand for another fake energy crisis. I really believed that Americans would pull together and protest the tactic and force the oil companies to back down. Obviously I overestimated my fellow citizens.

The good news is that we can still do something about it by putting this report of record oil company profits into the mainstream media and urge citizens to get involved in a counter campaign to force oil companies to lower the prices at the pump.

It would be interesting if someone with access to the numbers would put together an article comparing oil company profits since Katrina to the amount that gas prices have risen since the post Katrina price hike campaign began.

I'm no expert--just one person stating my observations and opinion.