Predicting oil prices from interest in electric cars

You have heard or read the public opinion theories that the oil companies are acting like monopolies (i.e., they conspire) to manipulate gas prices. While I have yet to see hard evidence that they collude, I find it troubling that little production capacity has been added despite higher prices. But that could be due to environment regulation, as is credibly claimed.

Jose Azar adds a troubling observation to the debate. He finds that whenever interest in electric cars increases, oil prices happen to decline. And not just a little, half of oil price changes can be explained by the frequency of Google searches about electric cars. But that can also show that markets really work: when there is interest in substitute goods, prices decline.