Fact and Fiction about Gasoline Prices

With fuel prices at the pump on the rise, politicians are hot to play the blame game. Should we blame environmentalists for banning rigs in Alaska and in our coastal waters? Are “not-in-my-back-yard” activists responsible for starving America of sufficient gasoline refining capacity? Is this simply the first warning signal that the oft-forecasted peak in global oil production is nigh? Or is this another example of a crisis manufactured by energy corporations, not unlike the gouging and market manipulation that allegedly went on in the California electricity market in 2000–2001? Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argues “none of the above”—and that almost all of what you think you know about gasoline markets is wrong.