Well, as expected, the Republicans are now blaming the price of gas on Obama. The real question, though, is whether anyone wants to explore the facts about why gas prices are where they are.
First of all, the Federal government does not own gas production. In our thoroughly revered system of free-market capitalism, the production of gas is owned by hugely wealthy oil capitalists. (Actually, these are the people who probably own the Federal government rather than vice versa.)
Second, the price of crude oil is largely controlled by the world market and the market, presently, is dominated by major speculation about the supply of oil coming out of the Middle East. Without much control, the major producers of gasoline will have to set prices based on the price of crude oil, speculation or not. The US is far from the only consumer in the marketplace. China and other countries are becoming aggressive consumers of oil.
Third, US producers of crude oil (oil pumped out of US territories) are currently exporting part of their production. Get it? US both imports and exports oil. The gas price has nothing to do with the current supply in the US and, hence, nothing to do with more drilling on and off shore. (But they are always eager to use any excuse to push us to allow more drilling!!) "Drill baby drill" will do nothing to gasoline prices in the US.
What nobody wants to talk about is the fact that if the US producers who presently export crude were to sell their oil in the US and, consequently, elevate the supply in the US, the price of gas would drop. But, naturally, the wealthy owners of our oil production have no interest in dropping the price of gas in the US when they can sell to countries where the price of gas is $5 or even $6 per gallon. Our revered capitalists simply have no interest in lowering American gas prices. As always, their great interest lies in making as much money as possible.
