My whining and complaining didn’t do much good, of course, and the six stations along Gasoline Alley (Highway 28) continued to display higher pump prices than, for example, Rosebud, Gerald, Beaufort and Union to the east; Belle to the west; Cuba to the south; and Hermann up north.

Now there are only five stations in business here, Delano at First Street and Highway 28 having closed its doors last month. But in fairness, I must now report that the five remaining gas stations, Moto Mart, Gas Plus, Casey’s, Break Time and MFA Oil sell gasoline cheaper, by as much as 8 cents a gallon, than the neighboring stations cited above.

Gas is still no bargain in Owensville at $3.80 per gallon but hey, 8 cents is 8 cents. It’s closer to $4 a gallon in St. Louis and across the Mississippi River in Illinois, it is $4.10 per gallon. I know this for a fact (for the people who accuse me of never having my facts right) because we were in Waterloo, Ill., last weekend for a granddaughter’s softball tournament and I saw it with my own eyes.

Television news never seems to tire of reminding us that the national average for a gallon of gasoline is well over $4 per gallon now, and likely will keep going up. Duh!

The forces that drive gasoline prices are complex. Therefore, I don’t quite understand the whole picture. I had several economic classes in college once and I know the principles of supply and demand. That’s reasonably simple: If demand for a product is high but supplies are short, the price of those supplies that are available will rise. Companies scramble to take advantage of the higher prices by increasing supplies of that product. But if supplies exceed demand, the price falls.

Eventually, in most cases, demand and supply reach a point of equilibrium and the price stabilizes until a new round of demand restarts the cycle. Demand for petroleum products, particularly gasoline and diesel fuels, has been soaring in recent years, especially in places like China and the Middle East as living standards there rise with those countries’ spurt of economic growth.

It all sounds so simple, but it isn’t. Too many other factors drive the economy and it takes an economist to understand some of it. Exxon Mobile reported record quarterly profits last year and posted a $10.9 billion profit (yes, that’s profit!) for the first quarter of 2008. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, recently pointed out that amounts to a profit of $83,000 a minute! Other oil giants, such as British Petroleum and Shell, also are reporting record profits.

But retail gas stations make only a few pennies profit on the sale of a gallon of gasoline, sometimes as little as 2 cents per gallon. Since most gas stations also are convenience stores they count on sales of other products to end up in the black every year. When service stations were actually service stations, oil changes, lube jobs, tire sales, tune-ups and other repairs were performed to supplement the 2-cent profit on gas sales.

In our area, MFA Oil Co., which owns and operates Break Time convenience stores, and Moto Mart financial statements were not available on their web sites. Casey’s General Stores whose stock is traded publicly, reported a gross profit of $519 million in 2007. Hocker Oil Co. of Salem, which owns and operates Gas Plus here, reported estimated annual sales of $58.4 million.

Exxon says its retail operations are not profitable and wants to sell all 800-plus of its gas stations. Other companies may follow suit, ridding their asset ledgers of retail outlets all together.

So who actually is to blame for today’s high gasoline prices? As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t help but be reminded of that famous quote from the old Pogo comic strip: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”