Obama’s Energy Follies Continue


The Obama administration’s bizarre energy policy took another confused turn last week as the President asked Congress to spend $52 million for more oversight and investigation of petroleum markets. The crackdown would supposedly be aimed at “those who manipulate the market for private gain at the expense of millions of working families,” although neither Mr. Obama nor presidential press secretary Jay Carney could identify who these dastardly villains supposedly are, or if they even exist.

It was, even by this administration’s standards, a pathetically inept response to an issue that could be a big problem for the President come November: brutally high gasoline prices. Rather than addressing the well understood, free market supply and demand forces that keep driving up the price of crude, the administration resorted to class warfare once again, to the point of resurrecting the Enron boogeyman in a vain attempt to divert attention and decline responsibility for Obama’s spectacular failures with regard to energy issues. Even the Washington Post wasn’t buying it, taking the administration to task in an April 17 editorial:

“President Obama is fond of saying that there is no silver bullet to bringing down gasoline prices. On Tuesday, however, he went into the silver bullet business.”

Recent history shows that gas prices over time depend on a range of factors, predominantly supply and demand fundamentals, that the U.S. government can’t easily control. And even if bona fide Wall Street manipulation were a primary force moving prices, The Post’s Brad Plumer points out, the United States alone can’t police the world market.

Republican leaders were even more direct, dismissing the President’s proposal as nothing more than an election-year tactic:

“It probably polls pretty well, but I guarantee it won’t do a thing to lower prices at the pump,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

“The president has all the tools available to him if he believes the oil market is being manipulated,” said John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives.

This comes at a time when the Obama administration surpassed a dubious record that was previously held by the Carter administration (to which the current regime is often compared): the greatest increase in nationwide gasoline prices during a president’s term. Gas prices rose by 103.77 percent during James Earl Carter’s term in office. As of two weeks ago, gas prices have risen by 103.79 percent since Barack Hussein Obama took the oath. By way of comparison, gas prices dropped 66 percent during the Reagan years, rose by about 30 percent when Clinton was in office and climbed roughly 20 percent under George W. Bush.

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Comments

  1. TINSC says:

    When it comes to gasoline prices, nothing would help more than the passage of the Open Fuels Standard Act.

  2. Ken says:

    Just another example of Obama and his uber-Left/Progressive allies trying to "bring down" America as they say. Everyone knoes that for the economy to thrive, abundant affordable energy sources musy be available. We have all that here in this country if we were allowed to get at it. This administration has erected more rules and regulation barriers to energy exploration and retrieval so as to hinder as much as possible the countries ability to flourish economically. And, all of this is being done under the guise of "environmental justice". I am all for protecting the environment. We have to be vigilant of the world we leave our children and their children. But, our country needs new energy sources and collection and processing methods are the safest to date. This administration knows this, yet deters any attempt to unlock our vast resources. It is a deliberate, calculated agenda with the aim of sundering our country from within.

  3. ProgDestroyer says:

    All the hand wringing from the red greenies about averting disasters associated with oil exploration needs to be debunked every time they open their pie-holes. "Nature" sullies itself with the black gold on a scale much greater than mankind does. One excellent example is off the coast of the soviet state of kalifornia near Santa Barbara where the equivalent of 8-80 Exxon Valdez spills occur over a short period of time. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/0905

    Keep in mind that the BP spill in the gulf was the result of over pressure and one gets a hint of how much oil is out there waiting for us to get it. But leave it to the anti-growth reds in the whitehouse to thwart that effort.

    Voting for a Democrat for any office is both heartless and stupid.

  4. StephenD says:

    Ditto Ken and ProgDestroyer!! You two said it all…and very well indeed!

  5. John C. Davidson says:

    The plan of these Socialists is to bring our country to a level of their socialists allies, but may well plunge the world into economic chaos. I heard from somewhere a saying; "Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do".That has a nice ring to it, but we cannot forgive, we must act!

  6. pierce says:

    Energy follies, hell, the whole thing has been a folly from the very beginning. Hopefully the american electorate will realize this come November 2012. We need to have closure on this President.

  7. kongMing says:

    Supply runs secondary to currency inflation in this case. The inability of Obama to lower his reckless spending led to a money printing scheme where the same debt is paid with inflated dollars of lower value. Other commodities have increased faster than energy.

    Obama if elected will do everything he can to halt natural gas growth. His out of control EPA has already shown its intent to spread myths of poison water and earthquakes. I can only speculate on his motives, which appear to be based on fundraising and pleasing his leftist political backers with absolutely no executive awareness whatsoever.

  8. Sage on the Stage says:

    So Obama is going after "oil speculators" and Capitalism. No more evidence is needed to show that he's not interested in solving America's energy problems. All he would have to do is resurrect the Keystone pipeline project; the announcement of THAT would bring gasoline prices down .30 a gallon overnight. He could also easily open more Federal lands to drilling. Gasoline was $2.50 a gallon in this locality, in August 2010; and there's no reason why the price can't return to that level; if only Obama would cooperate.

  9. Youssef says:

    Morocco’s prime minister has hit out at courtiers around King Mohammed in rare criticism that could signify the start of a confrontation between the Islamist-led government and powerful figures close to the palace.

    Moroccan authorities, under pressure from the “Arab Spring” upheavals elsewhere in the region, held early elections last year which for the first time handed power to the opposition PJD party of moderate Islamists.

    Read more: http://www.maghrebchristians.com/2012/04/24/moroc

    Youssef

  10. Pyeatte says:

    How in the world do you spend $52 million dollars to monitor a few speculators? what does it take, three or four people with computers, searching for what they already know, which is: we found nothing wrong…the same thing all the other investigations found. At most, one million would be more than enough to determine that.

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