President Obama was in Miami yesterday talking about gas prices, making a pitch for an "all-of-the-above" energy policy that would rely on oil production, alternative energy, and improved fuel-efficiency standards. Anticipating the Republican response, Obama added, "Anybody who tells you we can drill our way out of this problem doesn't know what they're talking about, or just isn't telling you the truth."
If an "all-of-the-above" policy sounds vaguely familiar, there's a good reason: as recently as 2008, it's what Republicans said they wanted, too. But like health care mandates, cap and trade, the DREAM Act, the payroll tax cut, and contraception coverage, the GOP is now against what they were for a few years ago.
Regardless, Republicans aren't just demanding expansive drilling. They're also pushing a talking point that's quickly become ubiquitous on the right.
"The president would like everyone to forget that gas prices have doubled over the past three years while he consistently blocked and slowed the production of American-made energy," a spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner, Brendan Buck, said in a statement.
The second part of this is just silly; oil production has increased every year under Obama's presidency, and is now higher than it was at any point in Bush's second term. But it's the first part that's important.
At first blush, the GOP line may seem compelling. Indeed, at a certain level it's just a matter of arithmetic -- either the price has doubled or it hasn't.
But for those who care about context and a more thorough understanding of the situation, the relevant details make all the difference.
It's true that when President Obama took office, gas cost about $1.81 a gallon, roughly half of where it is now. The price had fallen sharply in late 2008 for a very good reason: there was a global economic catastrophe. GOP officials may not understand this -- or they may chose not to -- but gas was cheap because the economy had fallen off a cliff. As the economy improved, demand went up, and the price of gas started climbing. It's Economics 101.
As Matt Yglesias explained yesterday, "It turns out that driving to work, ferrying stuff from the warehouse to the store, hauling containers across the Pacific Ocean, and flying around to meetings all takes oil. If you manage to orchestrate a situation in which millions of people lose their jobs, retail sales plummet, stores close, and economic activity generally grinds to a halt, this frees up a lot of extra oil. Cheap oil leads to cheap gasoline, so if you did have a job at the depths of the recession your commute got cheap. And good for you. But this should all serve as a reminder that there's little constructive action the American government can take to lower the price of gasoline."
This may seem unsatisfying, and it may make Republican talking points appear ridiculous, but reality in this area is stubborn.
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Facts, like oil, are fungible.
As Humpty Dumpty said to Alice, "Words mean whatever I say they mean."
Yes, but "reality" is NOT fungible, gas was also almost $5.00/gal. under the Bush mis-administration..........
Thank You Zora, for supporting this memory. I do remember these gas prices were killing me when I had a job and had to commute. That was just before the election and these prices were conveniently dropped just before the election of 2008. Even MSNBC has not mentioned this forgotten fact. All reporters are just regurgitating that gas prices were $1.84/gal. when Obama came into office and I was feeling a little crazy because I knew I was remembering correctly. We need to see actual footage of those sky high prices repeatedly just before Bush left office to jog the memory of others.
Yeah I'm confused: I don't remember gas prices being under 2$/gal since...well pretty much my entire time driving. I think they were just under 2$/gal when I started out in the early 2000's, but ever since then I swear it's cost more than that to fill up?
How about we talk about the end of wind and alternate fuel subsidies while Big Oil still enjoys their tax breaks?
Certainly we can work on renewable biofuels for our vehicles and alternate energy for buildings such as the aqueous sodium battery developed by Carnegie-Mellon U. which, if put in a car, would last for a million miles.
But, ya know: Drill, Baby, Drill.
It would be an intelligent thing to talk about but unless we can fit it on a bumper sticker its not going to help.
Our only way forward is a disruptive cheap green innovation, like the battery you mentioned. The politicians won't solve this, the scientists will.
I remember and still use the slogan " Is this trip really necessary" Maybe it is time to bring it back??
Supply and demand the mantra of capitalism, demand being the operative word..
Gas could drop to a dollar a gallon or less but you'll be walking since only the wealthy will be able to buy and use a car. Bus fare will require a sacrifice in lifestyle and your kids will be slaving away for pennies in bare feet and rags.
Reality sucks thus the right insists on living in fantasy land.
Time to use the Power of the Presidency, and mandate that all new government purchased vehicles will be powered by-------(fill in the blank)
Hot air from political gas bags.
CNG,(Compressed Natural Gas) it is $1.83 a gallon, burns much cleaner and we have PLENTY of it here in the good Old USA.
Are you talking about that stuff that's gotten by fracking? I didn't know Natural Gas was renewable.
Actually natural gas can be renewable. Some pig and cattle farmers are making/retrieving gas from manure. Actually I think someone has invented a small device that is being sold in developing countries that makes enough gas for cooking so that people do not have to gather firewood. All that the people need is a pig and a privy. If we spent as much on developing this very renewable source as we are spending on fracking and other new technologies, we could help solve our energy problem as well as do something about waste disposal.
It's always amazed me how the discussion about gasoline markets in the US always focuses on supply and demand conditions in the US.
Oil prices are determined in global markets, folks. The US is a part of those markets, certainly the biggest consumer and a pretty big producer, but neither US demand nor (even less) supply is important enough to move the price per barrel by more than a few bucks.
Gasoline prices in the US are rising because the global economy is recovering from a nasty multiyear recession and because of worries about the situation in Iran. End of story. ANWR, offshore drilling, fracking, the Keystone pipeline, tire gauges, CAFE standards - all meaningless, especially at the time scale of a few months or a year.
Sorry, I know a lot of those people in those global markets are socialist Islamist European fascist secular humanists who don't share our values, but that's just how it is.
No way! It's all part of a left wing socialist agenda to force the poor to walk to work.The left is determined to make oil rich countries and oil companies wealthier while tilting at windmills and basking in the sun.
... and by coincidence I just found this post at MoJo, which makes the same point but better: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/chart-gop-gas-price-attack-obama
I have friends who believe that gas prices are determined by the president and have no idea where the oil/natural gas that is extracted in the United States goes. I had to patiently and slowly explain to him that it has not and never has stayed in the country; it goes into the global market.
Remind them that Canada's pipeline will simply send oil to a port where it will get shipped to China. That is one reason Canadians objected to having it run across Canada to a Canadian port.
Oil price is set by global supply and demand and we are subsidizing world oil prices with American Tax dollars.
By paying to raise American output we are throwing our tax dollars at a global market.
That is stupid. The only people who gain from this are Oil CEO's and share holders.
It also needs to be pointed out that oil and gas is a necessities based commodity and doesn't follow the standard rules of supply and demand. Because every nation in the world needs gasoline there will always be a set standard for the cost of gas that you will operate from. There is a set amount that gas will never drop below because it is a necessities commodity. Likewise, and interestingly enough, gas companies can raise gas prices however much they want and people will pay it for the same reason. The only thing that inhibits this latter aspect are regulations that apply to the global market.
Intensively dangerous to the rest of us, the Republicans live in airy-fairyland! Their loose play with reality and the facts for all to see will surely be their precious downfall!
The underbelly investigation may lead one to discover some of our Congress critters profiting off spot oil prices now that the Eurozone no longer has Iranian oil at its disposal! What say ye ol'Boehner and crew? -Kevo
I believe in alternative fuels. BUT the poor and middle class already held hostage by gas can't afford the alternative vehicles. I am a beekeeper, I have to have my lousy gas guzzling truck, I have had so many reductions in bees from pesticides and imported cheap honey, how can i afford a new alternative fuel vehicle. Don't worry about us beekeepers our bees only pollinate 80% of what you eat so don't worry about us.
The poor will not be able to buy an alternative vehicle so they can't buy fuel to drive to work, if their rural like here in Mississippi they can't get a bus and walking 15 + miles one way to work is a tough call. Of course the rich with their cars and Hummers will do just fine. Hope they are happy!
"But this should all serve as a reminder that there's little constructive action the American government can take to lower the price of gasoline." I would go further than this: There is no will among elected officials at the federal, state or local level to do anything about gas prices. Why? Gasoline taxes. When the price of gas goes up so does the amount of taxes collected by various levels of government. It's a floating tax increase that happens in the shadows because the taxes are rolled into the price of a gallon of gas. Imagine if, like in a department store, you had a separate line on your receipt which told you how much the taxes were. Not just the dollar amount but the percent as well. First, the price of a gallon of gas would be much cheaper, but people would see just how much is eaten up by taxes on that gas.
I'm not saying that gas shouldn't be taxed. I'm just saying that all levels of government should be more open and honest about the revenue windfall that happens every time the price of gas rises. As a result, they don't really have the will to do anything substantive about the price of gas because it benefits them not to.
I'm not positive about this, but I think that gas tax is actually a flat rate in most states, not a percent. This means that the government collects the same amount of tax regardless of the actual cost of the gas. Gas tax generally goes towards paying fixed costs like road repair and infrastructure costs. Since those needs aren't strongly affected by the price of gas, it makes more sense to have a flat rate based on the damage cars do to roads or the cost of required infrastructure upgrades.
A state-by-state breakdown of gas tax can be found here: http://www.marylandgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx
Now I am positive there is no point in suggesting material for Maddow- The staff is wholely focused on vetted content from recognized bloggers like Matt Yglesias.
On Monday, I pointed the mendacity of the "GOP strategy" pointing to a graph on gasoline prices. That picture requires no further words. In fact, Yglesias's 12 paragraphs come off as a limp compared to that graph. This should have been the instant Dem comeback to the GOP ad with the graph and the President singing. Just show more of the graph.
I get it, there is lots of junk posted here, so why take a risk when there is already more material than you can possibly air on HuffPo, Slate, Nation etc. But wait a minute.. Is that the job description at TRMS? Just take whatever is in the established press and make it digestible enough for a mass audience. So what is the TRMS blog for? Ok. Mouseketeers we are.
I love how soft-drink prices rose to $1.25-$1.60 per 20 oz. due to the "high cost of petroleum" yet when gas plummeted from the $4.25/gal to $2.00/gal (in my area gas never went below $2.00), the inflated prices of soft drinks stayed the same.
Since then I switched to fountain drinks I can get for 1/6th the price or fountain water I can drink for free. Thank you Coca-cola and Pepsi for making me drink less of your products, I'm much healthier for it!
Actually, I think the GOP are way out ahead of Dems on that issue. They appear to have switched to distributing Electric Kool Aid on a mass scale.
(Rats. maybe no one here is ancient enough to understand the reference to Tom Wolfe's literary treatment of Ken Kesey). Anyway its about what they did with the psychotropic affects of the literature of the new journalism, not psychotropic chemicals. The deliberate use of tropes to obscure the activities of the plutocracy. What is fascinating is how impermeable is the membrane of the Right wing Fox- talk radio reality bubble.)
I am old enough to remember Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as well as the Electric Kool Aid book and Valley of the Dolls, the Carpetbaggers, and so on.
Facts are irrelevant to the Republicans. They are selling a message, true or false, with the expectation that it will ring true with voters. This election season, the Republicans are jumping from issue to issue looking for something to latch on and beat Obama. However, their current crop of candidates are not intellectually suited for a campaign nor do they have legitimate arguments to present the voters. Hence, the Republicans are tossing out slogans to see what sticks. What is the Republican nominee going to do when they are face to face with Obama who has charisma and intelligence? Are slogan enough to win? We will find out.
For the first time in decades we are a net exporter of petroleum products. We're pumping more oil than ever before thanks to new drilling technology whether we like the ramifications of that technology or not. But as PJ O'Rourke put it so succinctly, "There's a billion Chinese who want a new Buick and there's not a goddam thing we can do about it."
1. Stop trading and/or importing oil products to iran (koch bros). 2. Place regulations on wall street to control oil commodity trading. 2. Remove corporate oil entitlement welfare checks (oh, I mean tax subsidies). 3. Give huge tax breaks on hybrid or electrict autos (including other street safe vehicles). 4. Get busy with green alternative energy. 5. Stop fracking or we will ALL be more concerned with clean water than the price of fuel.
And block the Keystone XL pipeline. If we develop this dirty form of oil and pump all that CO2 into the atmosphere, it is curtains for the planet earth.
We can easily get the oil companies to lower the price of their gas simply by starting a consumer induced gas price war. All of us simply quit buying gas from all gas stations that are lettered A to M until they lower their prices by ten cents. Then once they lower their prices everyone stop buying gas from gas stations that are lettered N to Z. Once they lower their gas prices then we go back to not buying gas from the gas companies that are lettered A to M again until they lower their gas prices. We keep going on with this price war until we get the oil companies to lower their prices which they will do because nobody hangs onto a product they cannot sell without lowering the price of that product. Besides the oil companies have bills to pay and stock holders to appease so they'll have to eventually sell their product to survive. Pass the word onto everyone in any way that you can. All of you in the Wall Street protest help get this gas price war started. Of course we can easily get the price of oil lowered by nationalizing the oil industry. Every nation that has nationalize their oil industry has lower gas prices! Also if we were to force Israel to move their settlements out of the lands of the Palestinians and create the State of Palestine which would force the Palestinians to let Israel live in peace which would pacify Iran so that it wouldn't feel threaten by Israel and then not to feel the need to build a nuclear bomb we would then get the price of oil to come down. Read my web page at www.mybetteramericaplan.com for more details on these subjects and a lot of other ideas that will help everyone.
We need to expand hi-effeciency public transportation to improve mobility and support a growing economy. I would travel to Seattle or San Francisco much more often if there was a light rail near my home.
Rachel,
You are so right. Republican talking points never seem to have any connection to reality. Yes, the price of gasoline has been rising.
But it was far higher during the summer of 2007. These attacks on Obama on Oil Production are absurd. Few people realize that the US is now a large exporter of oil! Yes you read that right.
Oil companies have no allegiance to the US. They are multinational corporations who sells their product at the highest price they can and if they can get a better price for their product in China than the US, that's where it will go.
They have no problem drilling for oil here in the US and loading that oil onto a super tanker in Houston and shipping it anywhere in the world.
Why do you think they want the Keystone pipeline from Canada to Houston so badly? That's so their product can be shipped easily anywhere in the world and not for North American consumption. They could easily build a pipeline to Northern Illinois where it could be refined there and then delivered easily to the entire industrial North East.
Our cost of gasoline is entirely dependent on the world-wide oil markets where we frequently see manufactured shortages and collusion. Frankly, Obama should do something almost everybody would universally hate, but I think it would help to ease gas prices. He should bring back the double nickel.
The 55 mile an hour speed limit reduced consumption considerably in the 80s and that reduced the demand side of the equation substantially and that in turn kept gasoline prices fairly steady for 15 years.
Unfortunately, I must concede because of the increased world wide demand this would have much less of an impact than it did then.
Iran faces a delicate issue. On the one hand it wants to show the world all it’s got and put it at ease, while on the other hand it fears that such show 'n tell will give its enemies a roadmap to bomb it.Saddam Hussein faced a similar dilemma ten years ago. Though he wanted the world to know he had nothing to hide, he also wanted to bluff his archenemy Iran into believing Iraq still had WMD. Bluffing did not go well for Saddam, and it might not go well for Ahmadinejad.But since the price tag for ridding Saddam proved high, maybe we ought to reflect what we are asking of Iran now. On the eve of a threatened attack, we are asking it to take us to the depths of its arsenal and show us all it's got. Such great expectations are a sign we have been talking to our friends too long and are in need of a broader perspective. Exactly when was the last time we asked Pakistan, India, China or Russia to show us their arsenal?“But those countries are not advocating the destruction of Israel.” True, but Israel is not a thorn on their side either. Surely, however, we can see beyond the hyperboles and figure out their underlying purpose. Or have we forgotten that not all Iranians are thrilled with Ahmadinejad?He sure hasn’t. Nor has he forgotten that that his countrymen hate Israel even more. So he tells them that Israel will be wiped from the face of the earth. Expectantly, this nonsense unites them against a common enemy. It is even a diversion from the misery and isolation brought on by his theocratic regime. Quite clever work by Ahmadinejad -- and not a rial spent or a bullet fired. So why are we letting the crazy talk about destroying Israel get us all worked-up -- to the point of turning the world topsy-turvy again.Can we not see the desperate attempts of an unpopular regime simply trying to hold on?