During the hurricane season, starting right after the flooding of New Orleans, gas prices soared to unheard of levels. This was blamed on supply and demand. After all, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had affected crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. People lined up to buy gas before it ran out. That sure didn't help matters.

Here's the thing though, oil companies reported record profits. Exxon Mobil Corp. earned $9.92 billion, up 75 percent from the third quarter of last year. BP's profits rose to $6.5 billion and Chevron reported $3.6 billion in profits. Gee, I thought the hurricanes were hurting them. Sure, I know, that is irrelevant to the law of supply and demand, but it looks very very suspicious. Let's be honest, oil companies are all about making money, period, end of sentence. The thing is with oil and gas, we the consumers are usually up the creek without a barrel. We have to have gas to get to work. The oil companies know it, and I believe they rode the panic caused by the recent hurricanes to line their pockets.

Right around the time of the tragedy in New Orleans, news reporters happened to mention that the hurricane could cause gas prices to go up. It was only the very next day that gas started going up in my area even though we are practically in the middle of the country. How could the decrease in production have hit so fast at the pump unless someone was taking advantage of the situation big time? Oil companies were not sweating and wringing their hands nervously saying, "Oh no, what are we going to do, gas prices are rising.", but the average Joe wasn't all smiles.

Thankfully, gas prices are on the way back down at this point near the holiday season. Nobody is running to the pump in panic, and the Senate may have had some affect on the industry when they made a big stink about it demanding answers from the big CEOs of the oil companies like Lee Raymond, Exxon Mobil's CEO. So, what brought prices down? Was it yelling and screaming by the government, or simply the law of supply and demand. It sure wasn't a sudden feeling of Christmas brotherly love on the part of the oil companies, that we can be assured of.