My friend and I, on a trip to an arcade game auction [0], had a brief discussion about the escalating price of gasoline. He offered this overly simplified explanation of one possibility as to why gas could reach record heights this summer:

As hybrid and fuel efficient cars become more common, people are buying less and less gas. In turn, gas companies raise their prices to make up the difference.

It’s a simplistic explanation, I know, for a very complex problem. And even if it were more in-depth, I don’t agree. Realistically, if gas companies were losing customers to more efficient cars, wouldn’t they want to lower gas prices to keep people from buying those cars in the first place?

I guess I don’t have a great business mind, so maybe I’m getting it wrong.