The debate continues over the cause of high gasoline prices, a topic covered here before. It’s popular to blame the President, ignoring the fact that domestic production is higher than before he took office and the other fact that the U.S. is now exporting more oil than ever.
The NYT Green Blog has an update and includes this from Rep. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico:
• Gasoline prices in Europe fluctuate in tandem with gasoline prices in the United States because both are based on global oil prices. “While domestic oil production plays an important role in the energy security and economy of our own country,” he said, “its contribution to the world oil balance is not sufficient to bring global oil prices down.”
• Oil production increases in the United States outstripped those of all other major producers from 2008 to 2011.
• The increases in production, both onshore and offshore, come after several years of decline in the mid-2000s.
And Senator Bingaman’s remedy for the rising gasoline prices? Use less oil.
I am not with those that blame the President directly for high gasoline prices. However, it is an uninformed argument to say that supply has nothing to do with oil prices while simultaneously promoting that less consumption is the answer to high gasoline prices.