All they have to do is...

"On way to speech, Bush motorcade passed the EXXON station next to the Watergate, where gas prices were $3.29, $3.39 and $3.49 a gallon...”

This was the headline on the Drudge Report. Well what does that tell us about gas prices? Price fixing? Well there is a $.20 difference in price from the high to low. So how can there be price fixing? I thought the whole idea of price fixing was that the price was fixed. Silly me.

Well, I don’t know why gas prices are so high. All these oil companies have to do is hire a couple hundred of the world’s best geologist. Then all they have to do is send them around the world to some of the dangerous places looking for oil. Then all they have to do is hire a couple hundred guys to drill down about 5 miles. When they discover a dry well, all they have to do is start the whole process over again.

When they hit oil, all they have to do is hire a couple of thousand guys to build an environmentally safe pipeline hundreds of miles to nearest sea port. Then all they have to do is have a fleet of supertankers worth hundreds of millions of dollars each and crewed by seamen capable of sailing around the world.

Then all they have to do is build another pipeline from the port of debarkation to a refinery which costs five hundred million dollars. Then all they need is a crew of competent engineers to run the refinery 24-7. Then all they need is about 24 different distribution systems to get the various fuel blends to right markets.

Then all they need are thousands of gas stations which are located on some of the most expensive real estate in town. Then all they need to do is sell their product at or near the price of their 20 or so other competitors.

Oh yeah, all they need to do is all of that - safely while complying with a mountain of state, national and international regulations. Given the minimal amount of effort involved, I can’t imagine why gas should cost more than a quarter a gallon.