Stay Thy Hand! High Gas Prices Aren’t Really Obama’s Fault


Gas prices are shooting painfully through the roof, and President Obama’s approval ratings are dropping past those numbers on its way down. Makes sense, the rising gas prices are all his fault, aren’t they? Though pollsters do blame President Obama for rising gas prices, and cite it as a reason for his plummeting poll numbers, oil experts and economists disagree.

First, policy does have an effect on things like gas prices, but it usually takes quite a while for that to happen. Automobiles can take up to a decade to turn over, so tightening fuel efficiency rules doesn’t take immediate effect. Here’s a surprise: one expert notes that legislation George W. Bush signed in 2007 is helping stop the “current situation from getting worse.”

Second, there’s the foreign factors to consider. Think of Japan. No one could have predicted the meltdown, but now that it’s happened, the country is using an extra 320,000 barrels of crude oil daily. In the Sudan, infighting has reduced the supply by another 240,000 barrels, and similar violent unrest is upsetting output in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Issues in the North Sea have hurt Norwegian and British production.

Then there are the speculators who don’t dictate prices, but when prices do change, it’s because a speculator said something that freaked big oil out. There’s the strategic petroleum reserve, but then again, experts aren’t sure whether release from the reserve actually helps, and it usually only causes a temporary dent in prices. Then there’s the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama rejected it, which ties his decisions and policy pretty tightly to rising gas prices, except that if approved, it wouldn’t necessarily amount to more oil, just increased pipeline capacity.

So while one shouldn’t be too quick to blame the president for the rising gas prices, it is true that Obama’s energy policy (or lack thereof) isn’t making things easier.

Do you blame President Obama for rising gas prices?

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