Business Channel 2006-09-22&24

Cheaper gas. Finally. But why? Well, the legendary¹ summer driving season is over. No hurricanes have damaged Gulf² Coast's rigs and refineries³. Things are calmer between Israel and Lebanon. And Iran? Well, at least we are not at war with Iran. But with a little more than 6 weeks to the midterm elections, the blogs are buzzing with other theories. Are lower gas prices a Republican plot? This blogger wonders if Republicans are trying to soften⁴ voters who've spent the last year angry about high gas prices.

I predict it will work, by the way. The Republicans will retain control of Congress.

Those Republicans need all the help they can get and Big Oil is doing the best they can to assist. I would conclude that falling gas prices is just another example of manipulation of the public by Bush and company.

Certainly there is a strong physical relation between Bush's approval rating and the price of gas.

911, approval spike⁵, uh...

Doug Henwood, Editor of the liberal newsletter, the Left Business Observer, has charted President Bush's popularity against gas prices. He calls the correlation⁶ he found uncanny, but he stops short of calling it a conspiracy⁷.

More than three-quarters of the movement in Bush's approval rating can be explained by movements in the price of gas.

But it's not just the blogs. A recent USA Today Gallup Poll asked voters: Do you think the Bush Administration has deliberately⁸ manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections? Forty-two percent said yes. Big Oil's P. R. operation calls the whole idea preposterous⁹.

I think if politicians had, were really in charge of oil prices, I think that they'd be low, they'd probably be free right now. And ah, the very notion that we have some sort of command and control oil economy is, is silly.

Back in July, both crude oil and gasoline hit their highest recorded prices. Gas was averaging about $3 a gallon. By mid-September oil had dropped about 15 bucks¹⁰ a barrel. So gas should have dropped about 45 cents a gallon. It actually dropped 50 cents a gallon, and it's dropped more since then. Could President Bush have had anything to do with plummeting¹¹ gas prices? We asked Professor Akshay Rao, who studies pricing strategies.

Surely if you picked up the phone and made, you know, 5 or 10 strategic phone calls, he might be able to influence prices to some degree. But er, you know, I, I think that's a fairly far-fetched, ah, theory.

What's more conceivable, according to Rao, is that the energy industry cut prices without any prompting from Washington. That's because they're worried that if the Democrats¹² win, they'll follow up on threats to tax the energy industry more heavily. We put that idea to Big Oil's P. R. people.

It can't be done. They couldn't do it if they wanted to do it.

The government says one more thing. Remember back to spring, when much of the country started to use ethanol as an additive¹³ for summer gasoline. Well, that caused gas prices to spike. And now that we switch to winter blend gasoline, we won't have that added cost until next spring again. Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.

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Vocabulary

1. rig--noun. Also called drill rig, the equipment used in drilling an oil well.

2. Midterm elections are elections in the United States in which members of Congress, State Legislatures, and some state governors are elected, but not the President.

3. Big Oil is a term used to describe the individual and collective economic power of the largest oil and gasoline manufacturers, and their perceived influence on politics, particularly in the United States. The companies generally described as being part of "Big Oil" include ExxonMobil, Chevron¹⁴ Corporation, British Petroleum¹⁵, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips.

4. A Gallup Poll is an opinion poll conducted by The Gallup Organization and frequently used by the mass media for representing public opinion. The Gallup Poll is named after its inventor, the American statistician George Gallup.

5. preposterous --adj. completely contrary to nature, reason, or common sense; absurd; senseless; utterly¹⁶ foolish: a preposterous tale.

6. follow up on--verb : carry further or advance

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

3 refineries   

精炼厂( refinery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The efforts on closedown and suspension of small sugar refineries, small saccharin refineries and small paper mills are also being carried out in steps. 关停小糖厂、小糖精厂、小造纸厂的工作也已逐步展开。
• Hence the sitting of refineries is at a distance from population centres. 所以，炼油厂的厂址总在远离人口集中的地方。

4 soften   

v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和

参考例句：

• Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
• This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。

5 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

6 correlation   

n.相互关系，相关，关连

参考例句：

• The second group of measurements had a high correlation with the first.第二组测量数据与第一组高度相关。
• A high correlation exists in America between education and economic position.教育和经济地位在美国有极密切的关系。

7 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

8 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

9 preposterous   

adj.荒谬的，可笑的

参考例句：

• The whole idea was preposterous.整个想法都荒唐透顶。
• It would be preposterous to shovel coal with a teaspoon.用茶匙铲煤是荒谬的。

10 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 plummeting   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Prices are rising, falling, going up, going down, shooting up, plummeting, etc. 物价在上涨、下跌、上升、下落、猛然上涨、骤然下跌等。 来自辞典例句
• The enemy plane went plummeting into the sea. 敌机直直掉进海里。 来自辞典例句

12 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 additive   

adj.附加的；n.添加剂

参考例句：

• Colour is often an additive in foods.颜料经常是各种食物中的添加物。
• Strict safety tests are carried out on food additives.对食品添加剂进行了严格的安全检测。

14 chevron   

n.V形臂章；V形图案

参考例句：

• He wore shoulderstrap rank slides with sergeant's chevrons.他佩戴标示级别的肩章，上面有中士的V形标志。
• The chevron or arrow road sign indicates a sharp bend to the left or right.V形或箭头路标表示有向左或向右的急转弯。

15 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

16 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。