And in another e-mail to the News, Scott Johnson suggested starting a movement to have the oil companies regulated like power and natural gas companies.

"They wouldn't be able to have increases (or decreases) without a commission's approval," Johnson said. "It's always been interesting to me that gas can go up 10, 20, 30 cents a gallon when someone thinks something is going to happen, and back down 1, 2, 3 cents when it doesn't."

Some people in the nation believe their cheap gasoline prices are the result of a vast Republican conspiracy, with nearly half of all Americans saying the November elections have more influence than market forces.

According to a new Gallup poll, 42 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the Bush administration "deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections," according to an Associated Press story. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed did not believe in this conspiracy theory, while 5 percent said they had no opinion.

---

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com