Really investigating rising gas prices

Here's what needs to be investigated about rising gas prices ... and it's not just record profits by Exxon or Mobil.

At our local gas station on Friday morning before the financial markets opened, a gallon of gas was selling for $3.87 per gallon. And that was despite a week in which the price for a barrel of oil had been drifting down to just below $124.

Talk of the economy rebounding and oil coming under control had resulted in a 200-point plus gain in the Dow on Thursday. But gas prices stayed steady.

In one day, on Friday, as a barrel of oil spiked by $11, the local gas station immediately boosted its price by 10-cents to $3.97 a gallon. Poor job numbers for the U.S. economy set off the turmoil and dropped the Dow by 397 points.

Fine. But why raise gas prices by 10-cents a gallon in one day but keep them at $3.87 for all the previous days of week -- when the price of a barrel of oil has been drifting down? I don't believe station owners when they say their hands are tied.

Just as the speculators who are driving up oil prices in the financial markets, local gas station owners and franchises are taking advantage of the hysteria over this roller coaster and pushing outrageous, one-day gas spikes.

Does every local station have to buy gas for its pumps on that single day?

Can't they wait until Monday when the price for a barrel of oil may come down?

There is more to this gouging of the public than Exxon and Mobil making record profits. Other players below the surface are fueling this game. Investigations by the news media and the government need to start at the bottom and work their way up.