Pandering at the Pump

[catzmeow]

reason explodes the partisan myths about rising gas prices...

Pandering at the Pump - Reason Magazine

Read before posting stupid stuff.

Key points:

Gingrich says that as president, he'll bring prices down as low as $2 a gallon. How? His plan is to "dramatically expand our capacity to produce energy." It's a variant on the 2008 Republican chant: "Drill, baby, drill!"

But if John McCain preached that mantra, Obama has practiced it. Since he arrived, the number of drilling rigs in operation has more than tripled. Domestic production, which fell by 11 percent under George W. Bush, has grown by 10 percent.

Yet prices have risen, because—surprise of surprises—the United States is only part of the global market. All sorts of events around the world, good and bad, affect oil supply and demand.

As we learned a few years ago, there is nothing like a brutal recession to make gasoline a bargain. As the American economy has recovered, our demand has picked up. Worldwide demand for oil has also risen steadily in recent months. Both help to account for the price jump.

The main explanation, though, is the prospect of a military confrontation that would cut off shipments from the world's fourth largest oil producer. Republicans blame Obama for not attacking Iran at the same time they attack him for high gas prices. But nothing would do more to raise prices than an attack on Iran.