Is The Oil Industry Purposely Driving Up Gas Prices? - abc7news.com:

abc7news.com: Is The Oil Industry Purposely Driving Up Gas Prices?:

"Apr. 14 (ABC7) — First Senator Boxer, now State Attorney General Bill Lockyer is asking for transcripts of what an oil refinery executive said about limiting supply - comments made in front of our cameras, by one of the country's biggest independent refiners. ABC7's Mark Matthews reports.
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The oil companies tell us high prices are the natural result of demand outstripping supply. This is how President George Bush described it today to a group of newspaper editors.

President George W. Bush: 'You see, the problem is the supplies are out of balance with demand.'

Sounds simple enough. But listen to what the president of Premcor refining told a gathering of refiners here in San Francisco.

Hank Kuchta, President & COO of Premcor (3/10/05): 'If we go in and we start expanding like crazy before the demand gets there, that's the shoot yourself in the foot theory, and we'd all be the opposite of geniuses, you pick the word. They'd kill us, believe me.'

Hank Kuchta is president of Premcor, an independent oil refiner with the capability of processing nearly 800,000 barrels a day. But Kuchta told his fellow refiners his company doesn't want to produce as much gasoline as it can because that might flood the market and drive down prices.
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Bill Lockyer, (D) California Attorney General: 'This is the first time that a high executive was recommending, and no one disagreed, that they restrict supply.'"