Don't Look Now, But Isn't That $3.00 A Gallon Again?

Well, I was off a couple of months, but I was still right on the money.

Back in April 2006, the price of regular gasoline here in Los Angeles was $3.35 a gallon. It worked itself down to $2.49 at the time of the election, which is what I am referring to above. But, now it's back up to $2.97 a gallon for regular, having hovered at the $2.49 for longer than I expected it to, and then it started jumping in six to eight cent increments, starting in late January 2007.

Basically, the gas companies lowered their price on the way to the election, but have since raised the prices to almost exactly where they were before the election.

So, tell me exactly, why we are having this increase, if not just to simply make another $40 billion in profits for these guys?