You can tell gas prices are subject to artificial manipulation in that they dropped down to just around two dollars a gallon right around election time -- and then rose back up again shortly thereafter.

The political and economical conditions that lead to increased prices at the pumps benefit them in the short term -- but may hurt them in the long run. These cocksuckers are now driving new technologies that I suspect may end up hurting them: far more fuel efficient automobiles.

If Jill and Joe Sickpack go from paying $1 to $3 a gallon to fill their tanks (a THREEFOLD increase), the oil companies make out huge in terms of profit. Yet, if this long-term increase in cost results in a demand for automobiles that get 150 miles a gallon (instead of 30), these fuckers suffer a FIVEFOLD setback.

Personally, I hope these fuckers outprice themselves into obsoleteness...

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New race for automakers: build a better battery

Can you imagine this scenario: An American automaker leapfrogs its Japanese competitors with a gasoline-electric hybrid that gets 150 miles to the gallon and can travel 40 miles on battery power alone?

General Motors set out that possibility when it unveiled on Sunday the Chevy Volt, a concept car with a much larger electric motor than today's Toyota Prius.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0112/p01s02-usec.html