Why Gas Won't Get Cheaper

The President's energy plan won't stop the pain at the pump. But there's no reason to panic. Here's why:

You don't have to be a commodities trader to worry about West Texas crude. Most of us know the price of gasoline to the penny, and it's starting to really pinch. President Bush made the rising price of oil a focus of his prime-time news conference last week. But as Bush has acknowledged, lowering the price of oil isn't that easy. "You can't wave a magic wand," he said. Oil, unlike other products and services that are manufactured and sold, obeys the laws of geology, not just supply and demand. "You don't make more oil," says Sam Shelton, director of the...

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