This year’s driving season was a disappointment for those who hoped and expected it to pull oil prices higher, helped by the pandemic that, those optimists reasoned, would motivate people to rely more heavily on personal transportation than public transit. Yet prices have remained low throughout the summer despite a modest improvement. This week, the first week after the end of driving season, prices started with a loss, with WTI falling below $40 a barrel. The trend is likely to continue as pessimism prevails. Is that justified? According to some, such as energy historian Ellen R. Wald, not really. Data from the EIA, Wald writes in an article for Forbes, suggests that the actual decline in gasoline demand, hence oil demand, from last summer to this was moderate, at less than 300,000 bpd. In itself, this decline could not be reason enough to keep U.S. oil prices as low […]