…and, let's be fair, the disingenuous folks who are blaming President Obama now for higher gas prices should have been giving him lots of credit last year when gas prices were dropping from about $4 to about $3.25, but I don't seem to remember any talking points like that….
Anyway, I personally suspect a lot of folks aren't all that hot and bothered about gas prices, only about 4% of average household spending is for gasoline…..
Anyway, the United States consumes about 20% of the world's oil supply and we have about 2% of known oil reserves, soooooooo…….we don't control oil prices, and we never will. We have to pay the piper. No amount of domestic drilling, or tapping our strategic oil reserves, is going to make any permanent dent in the level of world-wide oil prices…
The smartest things we can do are: stop naked speculation by greedy traders in the oil futures markets; increase federal taxes on petroleum and natural gas products to motivate more efficient use of fossil fuels and to provide funds for development of alternative energy sources; mandate more energy-efficient vehicles and machines that use oil and gas; become the world's leading developer and supplier of alternative energy technology.
It's not easy and it's not cheap…..we need political leaders who will explain why we have to do it, and take the lead to make it happen.
See Richard Thaler's April 1 commentary in The New York Times:
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