[Vision2020] Obama Sets Gas Prices? Just Another G.O.P. Myth

[lfalen]

They have been able to make cars that get 55 miles per gallon for a long time. My wife gets 50 on her GEO Metro, which is not made anymore.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: Art Deco art.deco.studios at gmail.com
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:45:26 -0700
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Obama Sets Gas Prices? Just Another G.O.P. Myth

> March 17, 2012*
> Obama Sets Gas Prices? Just Another G.O.P. Myth*
> By ROBERT B. SEMPLE Jr.
> 
> Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate energy committee, complained the
> other day of “widespread misunderstanding” about rising oil prices. He was
> being senatorially polite.
> 
> The issue of gas prices has not only been misunderstood but thoroughly
> distorted by relentless ideological spin from industry and its political
> allies, mainly Republican. Hardly a day goes by that some industry
> cheerleader somewhere — be it Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana or Senator
> James Inhofe of Oklahoma — does not flay President Obama for driving up oil
> prices by denying the industry access to oil and gas deposits and imposing
> ruinous environmental rules. Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican,
> said last week that Mr. Obama should be held “fully responsible for what
> the American public is paying for gasoline.”
> 
> If only the president had the power to give us $2.50-a-gallon gasoline, as
> Newt Gingrich promised to do if he got to the White House. It is ridiculous
> to think that a president can.
> 
> One can sympathize with consumers feeling the pain of higher gas prices.
> But the fundamental truth is that those prices are tied to the price of
> oil, set by world markets. There are peaks and valleys, but their causes —
> a worldwide recession, an embargo or conflict in the Middle East — are
> beyond the control of any one country. As the chart below shows, gasoline
> prices rise and fall in the same pattern throughout the world. Americans
> historically pay much less at the pump because they pay lower taxes; when
> the price of a gallon spikes at $3.70 in the United States, it is closer to
> $8 in, say, Germany.
> 
> Because oil is a global commodity, increasing domestic production will do
> very little to bring down retail prices, although it does help narrow the
> trade deficit as America spends less on imports. On this score, America is
> doing much better than the Republicans will admit. In 2005, oil imports
> accounted for nearly 60 percent of America’s daily consumption. In 2010,
> for the first time in recent memory, imports were less than half of
> consumption, and last year, imports were only 45 percent — 8.6 million
> barrels a day of the 19 million consumed. There are two reasons for this
> welcome shift: production is up and oil consumption is down. Production of
> crude oil and other liquid fuels, onshore and offshore, reached about 10.3
> million barrels daily in 2011, its highest level since the late 1980s.
> 
> Some of the biggest discoveries have occurred on private land in deep shale
> formations in Texas and North Dakota, and production on federal land is
> beginning to boom, too. The real issue, which industry’s allies never
> mention, is whether the oil companies are fully exploiting the federal
> resources they already control. Mr. Bingaman notes that 7,000 approved
> onshore drilling permits have been sitting unused by the companies that own
> them, and that millions of acres under lease in the gulf remain unexplored.
> 
> The most encouraging news is on the consumption side. Americans are getting
> more miles to the gallon, which means there’s that much less carbon dioxide
> going into the atmosphere. We used 20.8 million barrels a day in 2005, the
> highest level in history. That dropped to just under 19 million barrels
> last year, and, according to the federal Energy Information Administration,
> is likely to stay there awhile. The recession has had a lot to do with the
> decline, but so has fuel efficiency. Ten years ago, cars and light trucks
> (including S.U.V.’s) averaged 24.7 miles a gallon. In 2011, the figure rose
> to 29.6 miles a gallon as consumers chose more efficient cars. Two landmark
> agreements between the administration and the automakers — aimed at
> improving efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases — could raise it to 55
> miles per gallon by 2025.
> 
> Despite this progress, ending dependence on foreign oil seems as remote as
> when President Richard Nixon proposed it. With developing countries like
> China and India demanding more petroleum, prices are likely to stay high.
> That’s reality — no matter what the Republican spinners say. Only a rounded
> policy mix of greater fuel efficiency, steady production and the aggressive
> development of alternative fuels can protect American consumers against
> what could be even greater price shocks in the years ahead.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
> art.deco.studios at gmail.com
> 
>