Well, of all the people to lie to us once again...

Who would have ever picked (other than many other times) the Oil Companies?

West Coast gasoline price spikes in May and October were widely blamed on refinery outages, but new research to be released at a California hearing Thursday shows that refiners continued to produce gasoline in periods when the public was told the contrary.

*Shakes Fist at Toby Lundberg* How did they get away with that one?

...in May, at a time when Royal Dutch Shell’s Martinez, Calif., plant was reported to be down for maintenance for two weeks, it appears to have been making gasoline for at least half that time. That conclusion is reached from state environmental documents showing nitrogen oxide emissions had returned to normal at the refinery a full week before it was reported to have come back on line. The research also concludes that gasoline inventories actually were building in May during a time in which West Coast motorists paid at least 50 cents more per gallon than the national average

But I'm sure it's just all a product of the market, the sweet ginned-up "free" market. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]