Less driving, less pollution: Thank you, free-market!

From SFgate:
This year's record-shredding spike in gasoline prices has finally ended, with prices throughout the country falling by more than a penny per day.

And American drivers can thank themselves for the drop.

Shocked by prices that reached $4.11 per gallon nationwide and $4.61 in California, drivers stopped buying as much fuel. That cut the demand for gasoline's raw material, crude oil. Crude prices dropped as a result, taking gasoline prices with them.

High gas Prices are working—consumers are conserving gas by driving less or choosing alternatives. While I still think that high gas prices are a heavy tax on the average American, it should be noted that high gas prices have done more to get people out of their cars (and to choose fuel efficiency) than any preaching by the Sierra Club or any other environmental group.

(Graph by Mark J. Perry@Carpe Diem)