Rising Gas Prices Are Directly Attributable to Failed Obama Energy Policy
By Bruce McQuain
– March 13, 2012Posted in: Featured Stories
The stated plan of the Obama Administration, or at least their stated goal, was to see gas prices rise “to the level of Europe,” so alternative energy sources would be more feasible, affordable, and attractive. Or that’s how I remember it.
So here we are, headed that way. But while the Administration may find that to be a good thing, most Americans watching gas prices rise . . . don’t.
And whom do they blame? Well, they blame the same person they always blame—the President. Right or wrong, and the reason is irrelevant. That’s politics in America. So the best thing to do is implement policies that will ensure this potential political landmine is kept disarmed. Of course, this Administration, despite its strident claims and outright falsehoods to the contrary, has done anything but that.
The so-called “experts” are trying to rise to Obama’s defense on this:
“This notion that a politician can wave a magic wand and impact the 90-million-barrel-a-day global oil market is preposterous,” said Paul Bledsoe, strategic adviser to the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Clinton administration official.
Well, a straw-man statement like that really does make one wonder about his expertise, doesn’t it? And one wonders if this expert from the “Bipartisan Policy Center” remembers the last time politicians laid blame for gas prices on a President.
Of course, no one is talking about a magic wand (although it could be argued that George W. Bush used one by announcing his intent to lift the offshore moratorium, and watching the price of oil plunge immediately), except for the Democrats who want to “tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve!”
This isn’t about “magic wands,” or immediate actions to stem adverse political results. This is about the sum of a policy of three-plus years that has seen us moving toward the Administration’s stated goals. The only thing that has kept the situtation from being worse is the rather large increase in production of oil and gas on state and private land over the past few years, which has offset the overall decline in production on Federal lands.
As political calculations go, though, this Administration forgot one important thing about its goal of making gasoline more expensive: it didn’t get the people’s buy-in, just as it didn’t with with ObamaCare. And, as you might imagine, the people aren’t . . . buying in. Add in the tsunami of negative stories about “green energy” companies and the high cost of alternative fuels, and you have a situation that is entirely predictable: Obama continues to try to sell his goals, and the American people refuse to buy into his pitch:
Monday’s efforts were just the latest in an aggressive messaging blitz that has included three recent swing-state speeches touting Obama’s backing for oil drilling, federal investments in green energy, and his administration’s tougher fuel economy rules.
But a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday suggested the effort is falling flat, with voters upset about prices at the pump—which according to AAA are now averaging $3.80 per gallon, a 30-cent increase in the last month alone.
The poll found that 65 percent of U.S. adults surveyed disapproved of Obama’s performance on gas prices, while 26 percent approved, and 9 percent had no opinion.
As mentioned, this isn’t just about gas prices alone. This is also about Obama’s energy policy goals, well documented, of seeing fossil fuels eliminated as the predominant fuel in our economy.
Naturally, because of the obvious negative political results, the Obama Administration has embarked on a campaign to shift the blame about gas prices elsewhere . . . leopard/spots, you know how it goes.
In this President’s view, only the good things that happen during his watch are his responsibility; the bad things belong to someone or something else. Bush was to blame for high gas prices (and just about everything else) when Obama was running for President. In this particular gas-price crisis, it’s speculators who are the bad guys. Never mind the “permatorium” in the Gulf of Mexico, and the reduced drilling on Federal lands during his three-plus years. Forget the promise the Keystone XL Pipeline held out, and the immediate effect its approval might have had on gas prices. Oh, and—an approval to expand Gulf Coast refineries? Who needs that? Nothing to see here, Citizen; move along. It’s those damn speculators.
Politics is about perception, and the perception is that Obama is an enemy of the oil business—and he’s done nothing to dissuade people from thinking that. Those chickens are coming home to roost, to quote the President’s old pastor:
“Anything that is perceived by people as a problem in the immediate advance of the election has a chance to impact the election,” said Paul Beck, a political science professor at Ohio State University.
The threat to Obama from rising fuel prices is likely to become more grave if the economic recovery stalls.
“It depends in part on what happens with gas prices, and it depends to some degree on the state of the economy as well,” Beck said.
Among other things. The bottom line: as much as the Obama spinmeisters try to lay this off on others, it just isn’t working. It’s his record of statements damning the energy industry—and those statistics that show this administration has done everything in its power to slow the production and refining of oil in this country—that counts.
Much to Obama’s chagrin, he’s being judged on his actions rather than his words.
~McQ
Twitter: @McQandO |
