The AP stories focused on causes of high gasoline prices and made a distinct point in both stories, to say that politicians, Congress and the President can't do much about the price of gas. In fact the AP's position is that the ONLY things Congress or the President can do about gasoline prices is to reduce gasoline taxes or force more efficient cars into the new car showrooms, via higher miles per gallon (mpg) requirements.
One of the AP stories said that a 36 year study showed no correlation between increased US oil production and reduced gasoline prices. The point they were trying to make is that increasing oil production in the US would have no impact on gasoline prices. They further pointed out that there's more of a global consumption of oil products and therefore the US has a diluted impact on gasoline prices.
Okay, now you know the basis for my post. Time to call BS and talk about my point of view.
1. Why aren't we less dependent on foreign oil today than in the late 1970's? I'm 50 years old and I remember there were legitimate gasoline supply issues in the early to mid-1970's. Although the federal government imposed fuel economy standards that were meant to reduce fuel consumption and thus, our dependence on foreign oil, we remain at the mercy of other countries for a majority of our oil.
2. Why don't we have oil companies drilling for oil in more accessible places? For reasons (mostly tied to the environmental movement) United States oil exploration has been pushed to places that are very remote (e.g. the frozen tundra of Northern Alaska) and very dangerous (e.g. 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and more than 100 miles off the Florida coast).
3. Our cars are more fuel efficient (overall) and safer than ever before. Why hasn't the move to smaller, more efficient cars resulted in lower long-term gasoline prices? I know, global demand. But still, doesn't it seem that if we have adequate supply and more efficient vehicles, the prices should be more stable?
I am all for having our motor vehicles be as efficient as possible. However, we've seen our federal government throw hundreds of millions of dollars at "green energy" companies that then go belly-up. Chevrolet had to suspend manufacturing of the Volt, a hybrid vehicle that was flopping in sales because (in part) it could only travel 40 miles per electric charge and the federal government had to offer incentives just to get the price affordable.
Suspicious Study?
I find the 36-year study very interesting because the study would've started about the time the United States started to really ramp up the environmental protections against many development operations, including oil exploration. The federal government was increasing regulations during the same time the study was going on.
My Dream...Good Luck With That!
What I would love to see is the federal government easing many regulations and restrictions to encourage increased exploration, allowing that exploration to take place in less dangerous areas, but while keeping safety as the number one priority. I believe this can be done and I believe the oil companies are willing to do that. Most importantly, I believe this would have multiple benefits, the primary benefit being lower gasoline prices in the United States.
Would We Control Our Own Future?
Even if the world demand for oil remains high and results in countries outside the United States being able to put a higher price on their oil, at least we'd have some control over our own gasoline prices. It might even result in a lower oil price which impacts the production costs of many other products and services.
