[Dan Evans]

He found oil storage tanks full to over flowing while people waited in long lines to buy their 10 gallons of gas.

As I recall those lines appeared during the Nixon and Carter administration. The reason gas lines appear is because of government controls keeping the price too low. Of course they kept supplies off the market. After Reagan was elected he removed the price controls and the price shot up, and the gas lines disappeared.

If the oil companies are allowed to charge whatever they can, you will not see people lining up for gas because they will sell those inventories with the high prices. This is something that regulators don't like to talk about.

Read this from Wikipedia:

Energy Crisis

[DustyMoment]

As I recall those lines appeared during the Nixon and Carter administration.

No, go back and remember the "ARAB oil embargo" under Reagan. Long lines and gas rationing.

[DustyMoment]

Of course they kept supplies off the market.

Well, maybe you're right about the time; my memory might be a little faulty. I wasn't affected by either "embargo" because I was out of the country. At the time, though, my dad said he also investigated the oil companies and discovered that none of them could tell him what the actual cost of a gallon of gas was.

Another FReeper confirmed my dad's story when he told me that his dad (a commercial airline pilot) used to fly out of LAX and see the tankers lined up over the horizon.

If price controls were the issue, selling 10 gallons of gas at a time below market price would still mean that the oil companies were taking a loss. It doesn't matter whether they are selling 10 gallons at a time or 100 gallons at a time if it was truly an issue of price controls. That just doesn't make sense.