Gas Price Roll-Back on the Main Line

The Liberty gas station in Merion is taking a trip back in time later today — and you don’t need a “DMC” on your car’s grill to join them. 

Americans for Prosperity, a national organization, which describes itself as “committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity,” will be offering gas for $1.84 per gallon at the gas station at 300 Montgomery Ave. in Merion from 4 to 6 p.m. today.

The event will probably be over before 6 p.m.; it’s limited to the first 100 customers, and each customer may purchase 15 gallons of 87-octane gasoline. 

Currently, 87-octane dino-juice is selling at the gas station for $3.83 per gallon.

Liberty gas station owner Richard Wark, Americans for Prosperity is footing the bill for the difference. It will cost the organization a shade under $3,000.

“[A representative] from Americans for Prosperity went around and was asking people in the neighborhood about different gas stations, and everyone was speaking very highly of us,” Wark said. “We’re good … and our name didn’t hurt either.”

Wark said he was initially unsure about participating in the event.

“I’ve never been approached about something like this,” Wark said, “but I went online to see what it was about. It looks like they’re doing it all over the country.”

According to an Americans for Prosperity press release: 

“President Obama’s ideologically-driven “green energy” policies have made it more difficult for Pennsylvanians to fill up their tank and drive to work, get their kids to school, and enjoy their free time,” AFP-PA State Director Jennifer Stefano said in the press release. “Our events will help Pennsylvanians get around this week and remind them of the need for sound energy policies that create jobs and lower our energy prices.

“This event will educate Americans on the most harmful aspects of President Obama’s big-government agenda, and put grassroots pressure on the President to get serious about reducing energy prices,” the release continued.

According to economist Richard Thaler, many Americans believe that yes, the President has the ability to control gas prices, but in a March 31 essay in the New York Times,  he wrote, “any respectable economist will tell you that the answer is ‘no.’”

From the article:

"Consider a recent poll of a panel of economists conducted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where I teach. (Disclosure: I am a member of the panel; the other respondents are well-respected economists from top universities with varying political views.) The 41 panel members were asked whether they agreed with the following statement: “Changes in U.S. gasoline prices over the past 10 years have predominantly been due to market factors rather than U.S. federal economic or energy policies.

Not a single member of the panel disagreed with the statement."

See the whole article here.

Economics aside, the event will offer residents a chance to save a shade under $30 if they buy the full 15 gallons.

Who can argue with that?