Jamie and Rich v’s comments on another post got me looking at gas price trends before Presidential elections.  I’ve heard comments that gas prices go down prior to an election, and even suspected there may be some manipulation at work.

But as I was looking into data for THAT story, I found it fascinating to analyze the difference between the lowest and highest gas price in a given year (fluctuations).  Take a look, and remember, the data in this chart represents just the difference in gas prices each year:

Truly fascinating.  In 1993, the difference between the lowest & highest price was less than 11¢!  In 2005 we had a difference of $1.29!  It is interesting to note is that the 2001 spike was not due to the events of 9/11 affecting the market; the late Spring seasonal price was the culprit that year.  Also of note is the fact that the fluctuations really began to skyrocket after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

More on my research into gas prices and Presidential elections to come.