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The Truth About Political Attacks Over High Gas Prices
The Truth About Political Attacks Over High Gas Prices
Brian Beutler
One of Aristotle’s laws of nature is that every time fuel prices rise, political snake oil salesmen come out of hiding to blame it on their enemies: They attribute (or implicitly link) cost spikes to the other party’s policy decisions...This happens every few years, and every few years it’s total nonsense...TPM turned to energy expert Robert Rapier for an analyst’s view.
Rapier is an energy blogger, a renewable energy executive, and a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline. Last year he wrote an article for the Washington Post titled “Five myths about gas prices,” and he says they hold true today.
Republicans today don’t go so far as to say that if Obama had approved the Keystone XL pipeline, fuel prices wouldn’t have shot up recently. But that’s the implication — and it’s of a piece with a broader claim that Obama hasn’t signed off on enough production in the past few years — even though production has gone up during his presidency.
<...>
On Thursday President Obama called these bluffs in a Florida speech.
“You can bet that since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their 3-point plan for $2 gas — and I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is to drill and step two is to drill. And then step three is to keep drilling,” he said. “We heard the same line in 2007 when I was running for President. We hear the same thing every year. We’ve heard the same thing for 30 years. Well, the American people aren’t stupid. They know that’s not a plan, especially since we’re already drilling. That’s a bumper sticker. It’s not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. That’s a strategy to get politicians through an election.”
And it’s true. Gas prices fluctuate seasonally — up in spring, down in fall — for a very specific reason: Butane. As Rapier wrote last year “Butane is a cheap ingredient in gasoline that boils at low temperatures. In winter, this isn’t a problem. But in summer, butane evaporates from gas, polluting the air while leaving us with less fuel in the tank than we paid for. As temperatures rise, refineries replace butane with more costly ingredients and draw down winter inventories just as beach season begins. Chemistry, not corporate conspiracy, limits supply.”
- more -
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/snake-oil-the-truth-about-political-attacks-over-high-gas-prices.php?ref=fpa
Brian Beutler
One of Aristotle’s laws of nature is that every time fuel prices rise, political snake oil salesmen come out of hiding to blame it on their enemies: They attribute (or implicitly link) cost spikes to the other party’s policy decisions...This happens every few years, and every few years it’s total nonsense...TPM turned to energy expert Robert Rapier for an analyst’s view.
Rapier is an energy blogger, a renewable energy executive, and a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline. Last year he wrote an article for the Washington Post titled “Five myths about gas prices,” and he says they hold true today.
Republicans today don’t go so far as to say that if Obama had approved the Keystone XL pipeline, fuel prices wouldn’t have shot up recently. But that’s the implication — and it’s of a piece with a broader claim that Obama hasn’t signed off on enough production in the past few years — even though production has gone up during his presidency.
<...>
On Thursday President Obama called these bluffs in a Florida speech.
“You can bet that since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their 3-point plan for $2 gas — and I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is to drill and step two is to drill. And then step three is to keep drilling,” he said. “We heard the same line in 2007 when I was running for President. We hear the same thing every year. We’ve heard the same thing for 30 years. Well, the American people aren’t stupid. They know that’s not a plan, especially since we’re already drilling. That’s a bumper sticker. It’s not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. That’s a strategy to get politicians through an election.”
And it’s true. Gas prices fluctuate seasonally — up in spring, down in fall — for a very specific reason: Butane. As Rapier wrote last year “Butane is a cheap ingredient in gasoline that boils at low temperatures. In winter, this isn’t a problem. But in summer, butane evaporates from gas, polluting the air while leaving us with less fuel in the tank than we paid for. As temperatures rise, refineries replace butane with more costly ingredients and draw down winter inventories just as beach season begins. Chemistry, not corporate conspiracy, limits supply.”
- more -
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/snake-oil-the-truth-about-political-attacks-over-high-gas-prices.php?ref=fpa
Interesting.
Dean Baker: President Obama Doesn't Just Say We Are Producing More Oil, We Are Producing More Oil
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002346051
5 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
