Why on earth would the oil companies be afraid of being taxed? Raise their taxes to the moon and the people paying it will be you and me at the pump.
Vi
They could still be afraid of a tax hike, even though they could pass it on to the consumers. The reason is that "Big Oil" has to be very careful in their price hikes. It has taken years to get the prices as high as they were. It is an art (a sick art, but an art) to slowly keep raising prices to find the point that maximizes their own profits. For if they raise them too high, people start taking real steps to dramatically lower how much gas they use. They even Big Oil loses.
The theory is, since they have no idea how much Obama would tax them, they don't know if it they would be able to pass it all on to us without shooting themselves in the foot. The mere threat of a big tax hike throws a wrench in their strategy.
I'm not saying the theory (that prices have dropped because of Obama's threats) is accurate. I'm just saying it is possible.
I personally think the real reason the price has dropped is because Obama, the Democrats, the Republicans, big oil, and most other large banks and corporations are all in bed together anyway. All this drama of them fighting it out, especially in election season, is like watching a WWE "pro"-wrestling match. So much of it is staged.
These gas prices and this recession has been created to get everyone to drink Obama's kool-aid even more... that's my opinion. After all, this recession does nothing to hurt the people in power. All the CEO's and people responsible for creating this mess are getting 20 million dollar retirement packages, and they get to invest all that into a low stockmarket and profit even more later! These people *love* recessions.
As I have said here before, there is really not that much difference in the end btwn McCain and Obama. Both men are liars at their core, as their campaigns evidenced. Sure, Obama says a lot of the right things... but the promises of a proven liar are worthless. I am amazed when people argue about which side caused this recession (i.e. prie's and bradlyallen2's discussion on p. 2). *Both* parties caused this, and neither party deserves our respect or our vote... especially here, since they both support putting growers of the herb in jail.