Gas Prices

The AP says it has evidence of supply manipulation by oil companies to restrict supply, in order to prop up prices.

Whatever the truth in Bakersfield, an Associated Press analysis suggests that big oil companies have been crimping supplies in subtler ways across the country for years. And tighter supplies tend to drive up prices.

The analysis, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, indicates that the industry slacked off supplying oil and gasoline during the prolonged price boom between early 1999 and last summer, when prices began to fall.

NPR reported earlier this week that crude prices are down, but that nationwide gasoline prices have risen an average of 5 cents since the election, as they have in Boise.