One of the first things I do each evening when I turn on the TV is to check the price of oil.

This can be done by tuning your TV to channel 46 and watching the revolving window in the upper left hand corner of your screen. The information given tells the current price per barrel as well as the plus or minus over yesterday’s selling price.

I find it highly interesting that while the cost of a barrel of oil is once again on the decline, the price at the pump is going up, up and up.

For instance, the week of Feb. 9, oil prices went from $42 a barrel to less than $38. So what did our friendly oil companies do?

The first increase at the pump was plus 15 cents — $1.74 to $1.89. The following day the price increased 10 additional cents — $1.89 to $1.99. Amazing isn’t it? At the time of this writing, the cost of a barrel was less than $35. Finally, the price at the pump began to drop. First, oil dropped a whole penny — $1.98 (Wow!), and then eventually nine more cents — $1.89.

One of the cable news shows interviewed an oil executive, asking why the price was going up when the cost per barrel was still going down. He gave the following very deep answer, “There are many complex issues that affect the price at the pump.”

I guess we the public are just too dumb to understand these “complex issues.”

It never ceases to amaze me that the price at the pump jumps $.25 to $.50 cents every time a hurricane comes in the vicinity of one of our southern coastlines.

This rise in cost to the consumer is always based on fears that the hurricane might hit land. Why not wait until the hurricane actually strikes land?

Several years ago, a friend called the local refinery and asked, “Why is the cost at the pump less the farther one travels from the Ashland-Ironton area?”

For instance, $1.99 in Ironton translates to $1.94 in Wheelersburg, $1.89 in Lucasville, $1.79 in Waverly, and continues to drop the farther you travel north on Route 23. It took him all day and several phone calls to receive the following answer: “Competitive factors!”

What else would you expect?

In these hard times that all Americans are feeling, the lowering price of fuel at the pump has been the one blessing.

You would think the oil companies would be proud to continue to help struggling Americans. But instead, like their old friends OPEC, the refiners have actually chosen to cut production, trying to match falling demand and prop up sagging prices at the pump. Some things never change.

Incidentally, it was reported on one cable news show that some refiners have laid off employees when cutting production. Isn’t this adding to the unemployment problem?

Once a week, the morning news shows will give the national average cost of gas at the pump.

Have you ever noticed that if the cost in the Tri-State is lower than that national average, the price at local stations will increase to exactly that national average by noon? Quite a coincidence, isn’t it?

So the multiple choice question is: Why does the price of gas at the pump rise when the cost of a barrel of oil goes down? A. Complex issues. B. Competitive factors. C. Greed! Let the reader be the judge.

Mike Nourse is a retired educator and contributing columnist for The Tribune. He lives in Coal Grove with wife Clara Gail, also a retired educator.