Just saw on the Cleveland news that they are blaming the raise on a refinery fire and some other refinery problems in Michigan . Funny how if there is a storm in the Gulf , or a refinery maintenance shutdown in Louisiana , or if they drop the watercooler jug at a gas station in Georgia , they raise our prices . For a while they were using the price of crude to screw us but since that has become fairly stable they have resorted to whims and fancy . We have been getting gouged for so long now that most people hardly even b!t@h anymore and bite the bullet at the pumps . Why , with all these problems , the poor oil companies must hardly be making a profit at all . I remember watching a news program back when we were paying $1.10/gal. . An oil industry expert they were interviewng stated that the oil moguls were furious that Americans were not paying the $3 , $4 , whatever per gallon prices that the Europeans paid . He also said that their #1 goal was to to rectify that in the near future . He must have been a profit . I'll bet the oil companies hired fleets of psychologists and lawyers to figure out how to f^*k us without causing a revolt . Too bad our elected officials aren't out there fighting for us on this issue . Maybe they get discounts on fuel somehow ?