Will Middle East democracy cost us at the gas pump?

Unrest in the Middle East is leading to sharp rises in the price of gasoline in Northeast Iowa and throughout the United States.

Some oil companies are pulling their personnel out of the Middle East because of the escalating violence.

But the jump of gasoline prices to around $3.25 a gallon in Decorah isn't due to shortages in supply--there's plenty of gasoline available. Basically, big oil companies are have begun stockpiling gasoline because of the uncertainty in the Middle East.

Oil companies keep gasoline in storage, sometimes for years, before they send it out to gas stations. Because of fears that the oil will stop flowing out of some Middle East countries, the gas companies are holding more gas in reserves and releasing less of it to the public. Supply and demand is making the price climb.

It's quite possible gasoline will reach $4/gallon this summer.

George Mason University foreign policy expert Jack Goldstone, who visited Luther College late last week, said American foreign policy in the Middle East in the past has been shaped by fears of just this situation happening--that without dictatorships and monarchies in charge in the Middle East, the price of oil would soar.

So the United States often supported regimes that did not uphold the ideals of democracy. Goldstone says now that public revolutions have begun in many of these countries, even oil-producing countries like Libya and Bahrain, "caution would be harmful." He says the interactions among groups like the armed forces, students and the ruling elites in these countries will determine what happens next in the Middle East.