Oil prices are escalating and Americans soon may pay $5 for a
gallon of gasoline. This grim fact has
not escaped the notice of politicians. America's
latest energy crisis has prompted heated rhetoric from Republicans and
Democrats. Here are four lies that have
been bandied about.
1. The gas
crisis is President Obama's fault. In the 2012 presidential
campaign, Republicans planned to run on the economy, but it's been
improving. They turned to cultural issues
such as contraception, but gained no traction.
Now some GOP candidates are seeing rising gas prices as their
opportunity. Recently,the chair of the Republican National Committee
wrote, " Thanks to the
president, America is running on empty".
Most Americans don't hold President Obama responsible for
rising gas prices. A new Washington Post poll spread the blame around: 18 percent of
respondents blamed President Obama, 14 percent the oil companies, 11 percent
"Iran/Middle East," a whopping 38 percent cited other reasons, and 24 percent
didn't know who to blame for rising prices.
The United States doesn't lack energy, in general, but we
don't have enough oil. That's the economic
"elephant" in the room, the genesis of our gas woes. The worlds' largest oil producer, Saudi
Arabia, has reserves of 260B barrels and produces 10M each year; 2M barrels go
to the US. The world's most desperate
energy consumer, China, has oil reserves of 20B barrels, produces 4M each year,
and consumes 8M. The United States has
oil reserves of 19B barrels [1.4 percent of the world total], produces 9M each
year, and consumes 19M barrels.
There are many theories about why gas prices have risen, but
the most logical explanation was voiced by Washington post columnist Ezra Klein: Americans are caught in an economic vise between the
world's largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, which holds exports steady to keep
the price up, and the world's most desperate consumer, China, which has no
choice but to buy oil at whatever the price is.
China's demand is driving world gasoline prices up and the US is
suffering.
2. President
Obama hasn't done anything to increase America's energy supply. Republicans claim the President has no energy
policy and that's the reason for the gas crisis.
On March 7th President Obama spoke about his energy strategy:
" If we are going to control our energy future, then we've got to have an all-of-the-above strategy. We've got to develop every source of American energy -- not just oil and gas, but wind power and solar power, nuclear power, biofuels. We need to invest in the technology that will help us use less oil in our cars and our trucks, in our buildings, in our factories. That's the only solution to the challenge. Because as we start using less, that lowers the demand, prices come down" Since I took office, America's dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year. In fact, in 2010, it went under 50 percent for the first time in 13 years .
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