Not at all "far off the mark" DougR, just paying attention to something beyond the numbers on the gas station sign. Contributors to this thread are apparently looking in their wallets and not at the big picture to see why the sticker shock.

You'll be interested to know that today on the news (Morning Edition, NPR) it was announced that last night a Saudi Arabian ambassador announced that at next month's OPEC meeting he will move to have the number of barrels of oil increased to avoid world crisis. Let's see: the meeting in is June. The production will begin increasing sometime in July. Prices will probably be lower for July, August, September, October, in time for November elections. Four months of decreasing prices ought to just about clinch it for people who can't see beyond their wallets to the puppet masters with the strings right there in plain sight.

SRS