It’s true that gasoline prices over the summer declined somewhat, not enough to justify the White House throwing a parade, but when fuel was around $5 per gallon and had fallen about $1 per gallon, at least there was an appearance of returning to normal, if only a psychological one. Selling off our Strategic Oil Reserve did help to alleviate the prices, to around 5 cents per gallon less than before. Of course, as I’ve said before, people driving less is why we saw a dramatic drop over the summer. If only there were a policy that could be quickly implemented that would take the strain off peoples income, over time. ALready, California is seeing prices rise substantially, and will probably cost. The president just announced selling another 15 million barrels from the Strategic Reserve to help alleviate the prices that are now rising again, as much as 50-60 cents in the last month. The sad part is that it won’t do anything because on a daily basis, we use around 22 million barrels. This is strictly a political ploy as the mid-term election approaches. It’s asking people to “look over here” instead of paying attention to the real issues they face daily.