Barack Obama and the High Price of Gas

“We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, 2008

Barack Obama Comes Out for Even HIGHER Gas Prices
Erick Erickson
RedState
4/27/2011

I realize Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and was Editor of Harvard Law Review, but I’m starting to think he’s not that bright — or at least lacks sense (never mind that he won’t release his college transcripts).

He’s definitely an amateur and it shows when, late yesterday, Obama came out in favor of even higher gas prices.

As a friend noted on Facebook, Obama’s popularity is falling so fast that Kenyans are now claiming Obama was born in the United States. This won’t help that.

Now, he does not say he is in favor of higher gas prices (though his Secretary of Energy does), but Obama wants Congress to “take ‘immediate action’ to end tax subsidies for oil and gas companies”

The two subsidies Barack Obama specifically wants Congress to kill are the “percentage depletion” and “intangible drilling costs (IDCs)” tax incentives.

Enter Democrat Congressman Dan Boren who explains why doing so would drive up the cost of oil production, make us more dependent on foreign oil, and — oh by the way — points out that getting rid of these would not affect Exxon, Shell, BP, Phillips-Conoco, etc. in the least little bit…

The article continues at RedState.com

Related: Why isn’t Obama celebrating high oil prices? at The Blaze

…The Congressional Budget Office reported that in January, federal and state fuel taxes sucked in about 48 cents per gallon for gasoline and 53 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. Government typically sees more profit per gallon of gas than the oil companies. At least the fossil fuel oligarchs — smart enough to control the entire world market but too dumb to do it more often — have the decency to provide a product before taking carnal advantage of us at the pumps.

Let’s not forget the Environmental Protection Agency, which, as we speak, is in the process of rolling out the “the most far-reaching environmental regulatory scheme in American history,” according to Time magazine. Using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases — so, all useful energy — the EPA is trying to initiate cap and trade by fiat…

From Doug Powers at MichelleMalkin.com, Obama Finally Says ‘Drill Baby Drill’ (No, Not You America)

It’s a start: President Obama is finally saying “drill baby drill.” If the story stopped right there I’d give him this week’s Sarah Palin Awakenings award. The problem is that Obama is calling on every oil producing nation with the exception of the United States to increase the supply in a desperate attempt to save his presiden… I mean… lower the price at the pump in Anywhere, USA.

From Reuters:

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday oil producing countries should increase their output to curb the rise in gasoline prices because “if we’re not growing, they’re not going to be making money either.”

“We’re talking to oil producers around the world and letting them know it’s in their interest to make sure that high oil prices don’t end up hurting the world economy,” Obama said in an interview with the CBS affiliate WTKR in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Isn’t the US part of the “world economy”?…

Update: John Boehner gas gaffe creates opening for Democrats, at Politico.

Update 2: At his press conference today Bernanke said there’s not much the “Federal Reserve can do about gas prices, per se.”

“This is a very adverse development. It accounts in the short run for…pretty much almost all of the increase in our inflation forecast, at least in the very near term. There’s not much the Federal Reserve can do about gas prices per se, at least not without derailing growth entirely, which is certainly not the right way to go,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today at a press conference.

Well, OK, I guess, if you don’t count making the U.S. dollar worthless. But the video is at Real Clear Politics if you want to hear it for yourself.

Wall Street was so convinced by the Chairman’s assertions that gold and silver broke new records today:

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Gold futures extended their record highs Wednesday as comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reinforced the notion that the central bank is in no hurry to raise interest rates even after it telegraphed the end of its bond-buying program.

The most-actively traded gold contract, for June delivery, reached an intraday record $1,527.70 in electronic trading during the Fed chairman’s first ever post-meeting press conference. In his remarks, Bernanke said Fed officials don’t have a specific timeframe for beginning to tighten U.S. monetary policy.

The central bank signaled the end of its controversial $600 billion bond-buying program …

The entire article is available to subscribers of The Wall Street Journal.

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