Are you surprised by the decrease in gas prices? What do you think the cause of it is?

Russ Staples, 45, Parsonsfield

“I don’t know why the gas prices went down. I’m glad it did! I don’t expect it to last too long. They make us feel good for a while and they’ll just up it again. They’re conditioning us.”

Ken Allen, 57, Gray

“They stopped gouging us. When you see the prices keep going up and up and the gas stations don’t have a delivery yet, that’s called price gouging. It looks like the government is finally stepping in to make the prices go down. It wasn’t that long ago that there was an investigation into price gouging.”

Dylan Murray, 24, Windham

“The elections are coming up. It looks good for politicians to drop gas prices. At first, I was surprised, but then I thought about it and it made sense to me.”

Virginia Lorrain, Casco

It was over $3 a gallon and then it just dropped. I was shocked, which is great for all of us and I would like to know it happened. There’s something going on that we don’t know about. But I’m glad it did. It’s been very costly.”

Cheryl Anderson, 42, Standish

“Absolutely I’m surprised by it. With the war in Iraq, I thought the prices would go extremely higher. I’d like to see it go down to $1.50 but I doubt that’ll ever happen again.”

Denise Dame, 47, Standish

“Yes, I was extremely surprised. The gas prices have gone down because the pipeline they thought was contaminated wasn’t. That’s what the oil company told me anyway when I renewed my contract.”