Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association, speaks out in this Bismarck Tribune article.  According to Rud, the high price of fuel is due to oil speculation in trading markets. 

From the article:

Rud called it “gaming the market,” and called the practice absurd.

As an example, Rud said at one point, a man purchased 46 million barrels of oil. To put that in perspective, Valero, the largest purchaser of oil on the open market, uses about 3 million barrels a day in all of its refineries, Rud said.

“When some guy, who is just a trader on Wall Street, has control of 46 million barrels of oil, someone needs to explain that to the American people,” he said. “That’s just wrong.”

It makes a huge difference in gas prices–and hence in our ability to travel.  This was driven home this past week as we paid between $3.79 and $4.43 per gallon every time we refueled.  Most stations we stopped at were selling gasoline for around $4.00 per gallon.

Gov. John Hoeven has already called for an investigation into oil speculation.  Meanwhile, efforts to increase supply by drilling in areas like the Bakken formation continue.  One disturbing piece of news was the fact that North Dakota’s own Congressman Earl Pomeroy apparently has a record for voting against drilling for more oil.

Although that last bit of information reminded me of something from National Enquirer, it makes me wonder how serious we really are about lowering gas prices.  The raised costs of food and fuel put strong restrictions on ordinary Americans.  How long until these situations become serious enough to declare martial law?

Okay, that last bit DID sound like something from National Enquirer, but still.  Mike Rud has a point.