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According to a recent poll on Daily Fuel Economy Tip, nearly 80% of people believe that oil and gasoline companies have manipulated the supply of gas in order to cause prices to shoot through the roof.

When asked, “Do you believe oil and gasoline companies have manipulated the supply of gas to cause prices to increase?” 79% of respondents stated yes; 16% stated no; and 5% stated that they were unsure.

It’s pretty easy to see how so many people could believe that gasoline prices have been manipulated:

The price of oil has remained relatively constant since the beginning of the year while gas prices are up over 40% – and it seems we set a new record high with each passing day. Sporadic problems at refineries throughout the country that have caused major supply issues, not to mention there haven’t been any new refineries built (which would increase capacity/supply) in many years. These huge multi-national corporations continue to rake in record billion dollar profits in the face of rising energy costs.

I think it’s this last item – the record profits – that’s causing so many people to be upset by the rising price of gasoline and lead them to believe that we’re just being gouged. It would be one thing if profits decreased or even remained flat in the face of rising costs to produce gasoline, however these profits have seemingly increased, both in percentage and dollars.

If it weren’t for these incredibly high profits, I think people would still be upset about paying more at the pump, however, they’d probably be a lot less suspicious too.

Personally, I’m in the minority here because I don’t think that oil companies have purposefully reduced supply to increase prices. While I voted that I wasn’t sure, I think the increased prices have more to do with the continued world-wide increase in demand for gasoline than it does with any conspiracy.

While there seems to be a lot of evidence pointing towards gouging, I think much of it is circumstantial.

However, the one thing that keeps me believing in the possibility of price manipulation is the fact that these companies know that even as prices shoot up we’re still going to drive our cars just as much as we did before. That being said, this probably would have also been the case 15 years ago when we were paying $1.25 per gallon. Why didn’t they jack up prices then too?

Long story short, I have no idea what to believe, but it certainly seems like most of us feel that we’re being screwed.