Obama's Limits On Oil Output Cause Higher Gas Prices
Energy: President Obama says Newt Gingrich "isn't telling the truth" when he claims he could cut the price of gas to $2.50 a gallon if elected. Well, the price of gas when Obama took office was $1.83 a gallon. Was that a lie?
'There's no silver bullet" for high gas prices, the president said Monday. This is utterly false. The "silver bullet" for anything in short supply is to make more of it, which lowers the price — something Obama steadfastly refuses to do with oil.
When Obama entered office in January 2009, a gallon of unleaded gasoline went for about $1.83. Today, that same gas goes for $3.53 — a 93% increase. Some of it, of course, is the Iran crisis. But, as the American Petroleum Institute (API) notes, that's not the main problem. Obama's policies are.
"Gasoline prices are higher today at least in part because government has neglected to pay sufficient attention to the importance of producing more of our own oil and natural gas," said API Director Erik Milito.
President Obama likes to brag that oil and gas output has risen during his term. True, but he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Output, according to a new API study, "increased in 2011 over 2009 only as a result of growing production on state and private lands — up almost 29% for oil and 22% for natural gas."
By comparison, on federal lands, which Obama's administration controls, production fell 7.9% for oil and 6.8% for natural gas over the same period.
Surprised? Don't be. President Obama's Energy Secretary Stephen Chu in 2008 said, "Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." That's above $8 a gallon.
Also in 2008, then-candidate Obama likewise said he wanted prices to rise. So he can't feign surprise as his policies inevitably lead to less oil and higher prices.
Obama killed the Keystone XL pipeline, which alone would have brought in 800,000 barrels of oil a day. He has shut off huge swaths of our offshore to further oil development, and slowed permitting in the Gulf of Mexico. He keeps our shale-oil reserves under lock and key.
All told, the U.S. has as much as two trillion barrels of oil equivalents trapped in the ground and offshore — about eight times the reserves Saudi Arabia has. Yet, Obama doesn't want us to get it. Less supply, higher prices, by design. Call it the Obama Gasoline Tax.
How much is the tax? Economist Milton Ezrati notes that the 30% oil rise since last fall "has already siphoned more than $280 billion" from consumers' pockets. This swamps the $114 billion payroll tax cut for this year.
A recent study by Wood Mackenzie estimates ending Obama's policies would raise U.S. oil output 1.27 million barrels a day by 2015 — an increase of 22% from current levels. By 2030, that jumps by 10.4 million barrels a day — a surge of nearly 180%.
That would bring oil prices down, providing our economy an enormous boost while also giving us time to find oil alternatives. "Silver bullet"? Sounds like one to us. |
