Bush does have some control over gasoline prices. For one he could tap our petroleum reserve, this was done by his father in the Gulf War era to keep a lid on the price of gas. Secondly, he has had a lot to do with the rapid price increase as the administration's weird policies in the Middle East and Iraq and their wild deficit spending and inattention to our trade regime have driven down the value of the dollar , led to tightening petroleum supplies and given OPEC more clout in controlling petroleum prices. Also all this has led to more speculation further driving up the price of oil, hence gas.
Some of this is not the administration's full fault, but taken together, it is their policies , actions and inactions which have led to this massive price increase. Some of the price jump might be blamed on enviornmentalists stopping, for now, further development of the North Slope and stopping some offshore drilling, and forcing special blending of gas, but the fact is that increases in domestic production would still be years away and blending is an overall minor cost factor ==but can be important regionally. I think the claim of oil companies that they cannot build new refineries in the US has some validity , but they have been upgrading some refineries and probably could have built at least a couple if they were serious about protecting domestic manufacturing.
Some of the increase is also due to the lack of interest on this administration and the Clinton/Bush 1/Reagan administrations to raise CAFE standards and spend more on alternatives. As it is we are giving away many of our former advantages in alternative energy development, we are still providing large -- annually tens of billions of dollars - of subsidies to the Oil companies and we allowed the spread of fuel hogging vehicles. If we had increased CAFE standards by 25% between the mid 1980's and now, easily possible with no real pain, we would have around 5% less worldwide oil consumption, and there would be no huge crisis. If we had taxed gas at 25 cents a gallon we would have huge amounts to invest in alternative energy, atomic power, better efficiency and the like .
It is just crazy that we are hell bent on handing to our children a world in an energy crisis when it did not have to be so. I blame much of this on the so-called free market policies of the GOP which were just excuses to line the pockets of oil men, and not deal with reality.
I see the same thing happening on global warming issues. It is very possible that global warming will happen at a less fast rate than the most alarmist groups predict, but saving on the burning of fossil fuel energy , the main cause of increased CO2, has two other beneficial outcomes, one is that ocean acidification will slow ; this is caused by increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and is likely to cause a collapse in corals and fish stocks. Also peak oil production would have been put off until more alternative energy sources were developed; helping to advert an energy crisis, or at least lessen its magnitude.. |
