Energy experts attribute the sharp decline in gasoline prices to basic market forces. Tell that to many motorists, however, and their eyes roll. Two out of five Americans believe the November elections and politics — not economics — are behind the plunge at the pump.

Retired farmer Jim Mohr of Lexington, Ill., rattled off a tankful of reasons fuel costs may be falling, including the end of the summer travel season and the fact that no major hurricanes have disrupted Gulf of Mexico output.

“But I think the big important reason is Republicans want to get elected,” Mohr, 66, said while filling up for $2.17 a gallon. “They think getting the prices down is going to help get some more incumbents re-elected.”

According to a new Gallup poll, 42 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the Bush administration “deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall’s elections.” Fifty-three percent of those surveyed did not believe this conspiracy theory, and 5 percent said they had no opinion.

Almost two-thirds of those who suspect President Bush intervened to bring down energy prices before Election Day are registered Democrats, according to Gallup.

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Monday he was “amused” by the suggestion “that the president has been rigging gas prices, which would give him the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being.”

“If we’re dropping gas prices now,” Snow said, “why on earth did we raise them to $3.50 before?”

The retail price of gasoline has plunged by 66 cents, or 22 percent, since early August to average $2.38 a gallon nationwide, according to the Energy Department. That is 42.5 cents lower than it was a year ago, when the country’s fuel output was devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which damaged platforms, pipelines and refineries across the Gulf Coast.

With competition fierce to sell the cheapest fuel on the block, gas is selling for less than $2 a gallon in many states.

“They want to gain market share,” said John Eichberger, director of motor fuels at the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Fimat USA oil analyst Antoine Halff scoffed at the notion that President Bush, or any politician, had the power to muscle around a global market.

The plunge in prices, Halff said, is the result of growing domestic inventories of fuel, slowing economic growth and toned-down rhetoric between Iran and the United States, which has been critical of Tehran’s uranium enrichment program.

The selloff has been magnified, Halff said, by the recent retreat from the market by many speculative investors who got burned by the late-summer volatility. That said, Halff believes oil prices will likely head higher again this winter.

Crude-oil futures soared to more than $78 a barrel in mid-July. On Tuesday, November crude futures traded below $62 a barrel.

“We have lots of gasoline supply,” said Joanne Shore, an Energy Department analyst. U.S. inventories of gasoline stood last week at 207.6 million barrels, 6 percent more than last year and slightly above the five-year average for this time of year.

But in Los Angeles, which has some of the highest gasoline prices in the country, motorists wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a government eager to sway the electorate.

“I’m sure there’s some sort of string-pulling going on,” said attorney Amnon  Siegel said.

Monday marked the first time since mid-March that that the average U.S. retail gasoline price fell below $100 for a 42-gallon barrel, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

“We will go down again tomorrow and we will see prices drift lower all week. There is still plenty of relief ahead,” Kloza said.]

The Energy Department said the cheapest fuel could be found in the Midwest, where the average price for a gallon of gasoline was $2.207, down more than 11 cents over the past week and more than 51 cents below 2005.

Average regular-grade gas price                       Lincoln       Nation

 

Tuesday:   $2.26               $2.368

Monday:    $2.26              $2.384

Month ago:  $2.883          $2.861

Year ago:  $2.820                $2.800

Source: AAA Fuel Gauge