The Price Of Gas: What Can We Do

Obama is faced with rising gasoline prices.  And as we head into an election year he is going to be asked what he’s gonna do about it.  His answer, I suspect, is that there is little a President can do to influence the price of gasoline.  The market dictates the price and that market is fed by the forces of supply and demand.

And, because it IS an election year, he’s going to demonize the “oil speculators” and claim that they are getting rich while the middle class is getting hammered.  Count on it.

But is that the real story?  Is it fair to let Obama skate on this issue so easily?

No.

When the President claims there is little to be done to control the price of gasoline, what he’s really saying is that there is little that can be done NOW to control the price of gasoline NOW.  What he isn’t saying is that there is a whole bunch that we can do to impact the price of gasoline later.

For example, it wasn’t but 3-4 years ago that he was raging against drilling in ANWR.  He was claiming that oil from ANWR wouldn’t be available for 7-10 years.  Well, if you go back, in 2005 then Senator Obama voted to lock down ANWR and prevent drilling there.  If we HAD drilled, the oil from the region could be flowing to the United States right now.  Outside estimates put it as 2015.

Same with drilling in the gulf.  Or off of Florida.  Or off of California.  Or anywhere else the federal government has a say.

So, back to the recent price spike.  We’re seeing oil rise because of the instability of Iran.  That nation has threatened to cut off the supply of oil through the Straits of  Hormuz.  And the percentage of oil moving through that channel?  20%  17 million barrels a day.

The secret to stabilizing the price of oil, and then gasoline, is to reduce the amount of oil that comes from unstable regions of the world.

Okay the keystone pipeline?  590,000 barrels a day.  A lot?  Compared to 17,000,000?  No, not really.  But open ANWR.  Continue to exploit other stables sources and you begin to chip away at the dependence on the Strait.

Obama is right.  There’s nothing he can do to lower the price of gasoline.  He and his liberal friends did that to us 7-10 years ago.  What he’s doing today is raising the price of gasoline 7-10 years in the future.

7 responses to “The Price Of Gas: What Can We Do

  1. Pino,

    I remember arguing with idiots in 2001 about ANWR . It wasn’t worth doing it because it would take until 2011 for any oil to flow. The only reason oil was high was because Bush and Cheney were oil men who engineered the price to take care of their oil buddies . You really have to remind liberals of their own words . Obama has a wealth of stupid on energy to quote .

    • I remember arguing with idiots in 2001 about ANWR . It wasn’t worth doing it because it would take until 2011 for any oil to flow.

      More proof that liberals don’t run businesses. An outlook further than tomorrow is beyond ’em.

      The only reason oil was high was because Bush and Cheney were oil men who engineered the price to take care of their oil buddies .

      You didn’t know that Obama is an oil man?

    • Defend drilling in ANWR if you like, but it’s completely idiotic to fantasize that it would affect the cost of oil:

      The Energy Information Administration, which is the Energy Department’s independent analytical arm, estimated that if Congress had cleared Bush’s ANWR drilling plan the oil would have been available to refiners in 2011, but only at a small volume of 40,000 barrels a day — a drop in the bucket compared with the 20.6 million barrels the U.S. consumes daily.

      At peak production, ANWR could have potentially added 780,000 barrels a day to U.S. crude oil output by 2020, according to the EIA.

      The extra supplies would have cut dependence on foreign oil, but only slightly. With ANWR crude, imports would have met 60 percent of U.S. oil demand in 2020, down from 62 percent without the refuge’s supplies.

      • Defend drilling in ANWR if you like, but it’s completely idiotic to fantasize that it would affect the cost of oil:

        I was just on my over to your place…

        I know. There isn’t one single source that’ll replace all foreign oil. And to your point, it may not reduce the price of oil by much; it’s a global market.

        The idea is to chip away at the ratio of oil we get from nut jobs like Iran and Venezuela.

        At peak, ANWR and the Keystone would bring us about 1.6 million barrels a day. Only about 10% of the amount that goes through Hormuz, granted, but it’s a start.

  2. Pino,

    Obama is not an oil man, he is an auto mogul . He has his own Edsel, the Chevy Volt . That and Solyndra were just fish thrown to his supporters who clap and ert like seals . He actually could have engineered something that has the technology already perfected and only lacks the infrastructure to have it substitute for gasoline and diesel . Natural gas cars .

    Everything President Obama does is about pleasing the left wing radicals who engineered his election . When he takes credit for the increased oil drilling in the US , I think why do so many Americans not throw a brick through their TVs ?

    • Obama is not an oil man,

      Usin’ the Liberal logic; if the price of oil goes up [dubya and Cheney] means your an oil man, Obama is an oil man!

      When he takes credit for the increased oil drilling in the US , I think why do so many Americans not throw a brick through their TVs ?

      Dude. THAT one kills me.

      He’s done more to stop domestic exploration and drilling than anyone. That oil we’re drilling for now? Those permits were issued long before he was around. That and they are being drilled on lands he doesn’t control.

  3. Pino,

    As much as I hated Jimmy Carter , I do not recall him being guilty of the blatant hypocrisy that President Obama demonstrates constantly . You have to go back to Clinton to find a guy who didn’t care if you caught him in a contradiction . Bill Clinton had an easy charm and competence Obama lacks to pull it off .

    This changes the topic, but illustrates my hypocrisy point .

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-influence-industry-obama-gives-administration-jobs-to-some-big-fundraisers/2012/03/06/gIQA9y3txR_story.html

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