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How Much is Obama to Blame For Gas Prices?

How Much of an Influence has Obama had on rising gas prices?

  • A great deal of influence

    Votes: 2 8.7%

  • Some Influence

    Votes: 4 17.4%

  • Very Little Influence

    Votes: 17 73.9%

  • Other/Unknown

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    23
Little to none....
 
I'll be answering the question of the poll and OP, not necessarily the title.

Very little. Summer time, turmoil in the middle east, and the simple upward trend of oil prices are the likely largest culprits. Obama likely influenced it somewhat with the ban in the Gulf during that time and his policies are likely driving speculators to buy in ways that raise the price due to his policies not painting a good picture for oil. However, outside of that I think he's had little real influence on the price.

Now, I think there's things he hasn't done that would've had a POSITIVE influence on bringing prices down. However, not taking action to me isn't necessarily him "influencing" something unless he was specifically taking action to not take action (such as the gulf oil ban). So I don't consider that part of his "influence" on the prices of gas. Its too indirect of an association for me to really attribute it.
 
He has the ability to steer the conversation, to hold meetings with Opec, to weigh the benefit of releasing reserves, to expand drilling and access here, etc. He can lead the way and he isn't. So as a leader, he has influence.

In every other way, he's got nothing...he doesn't set the price of oil, he doesn't control the larger supply (or demand), he doesn't own oil production/refining facilities, etc.
 
Gas prices are mostly influenced by the OPEC. Not the US administration. So I don't know how any US president could be blamed for gas prices. Even if we managed to have enough oil to supply our insane amount of consumption for more than a couple of years, we'd be fools to sell it to ourselves bellow international market prices. Americans do so much bitching when it comes to gas. Most of Europe would be lucky to pay what we pay for gas. For all intended purposes we are the lower end of the global gas price average.
 
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Hatuey said:
Gas prices are mostly influenced by the OPEC. Not the US administration. So I don't know how any US president could be blamed for gas prices. Even if we managed to have enough oil to supply our insane amount of consumption for more than a couple of years, we'd be fools to sell it to ourselves bellow international market prices. Americans do so much bitching when it comes to gas. Most of Europe would be lucky to pay what we pay for gas. For all intended purposes we are the lower end of the global gas price average.
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I realize much of it is out of reachof the president and his administrations authority, but after all, what I should have implemented and made more clear was how much of the rising prices could have been prevented if he would stop relying on OPEC and open drilling instead of banning and shutting them down?
 
It is due to the high demand by people who want to drive large vehicles over long commutes

Should more people drive more efficient cars over shorter distances the price of gasoline would go down

That is how the free market works.
 
Very little.

Although I think Tess has a point. If one wants to look at it from the perspective of "how has his inaction affected gas prices," then yes you could say he bears some responsibility. But naturally the government of the United States doesn't not set gas prices.
 
DontDoIt said:
I realize much of it is out of reachof the president and his administrations authority, but after all, what I should have implemented and made more clear was how much of the rising prices could have been prevented if he would stop relying on OPEC and open drilling instead of banning and shutting them down?
Click to expand...

This implies that the US has the capacity to change prices with additional domestic drilling. Current reserves coupled with average time to market placed against growing demand overseas suggests this is mathematically impossible.
 
tessaesque said:
He has the ability to steer the conversation, to hold meetings with Opec, to weigh the benefit of releasing reserves, to expand drilling and access here, etc. He can lead the way and he isn't. So as a leader, he has influence.

In every other way, he's got nothing...he doesn't set the price of oil, he doesn't control the larger supply (or demand), he doesn't own oil production/refining facilities, etc.
Click to expand...

Not quite. There is one thing Obama can do. But it arguably would cause more problems. As oil is traded in dollars, a weak dollar causes increases in oil price to make up for the currency differences. A strong dollar would cause oil prices to decline. Basically if Obama got Ben to jack up rates, he would strengthen the dollar and reduce oil prices. He'd probably also start another recession though.

Only fools think that more drilling will reduce prices. At BEST more drilling will slow the rise of prices.
 
He is mostly responsible. Its what he wants. Look at his energy policies He has none other than to send us back to the middle ages using the sun and wind to power us. All he need do is say we are going to unleash all our energy resources and the speculators would speculate down instead of up.

Only fools think that more drilling will reduce prices. At BEST more drilling will slow the rise of prices.
Click to expand...

Only a fool could think it wont.
 
Penrod said:
He is mostly responsible. Its what he wants. Look at his energy policies He has none other than to send us back to the middle ages using the sun and wind to power us. All he need do is say we are going to unleash all our energy resources and the speculators would speculate down instead of up.

Only a fool could think it wont.
Click to expand...

Want to explain to me how increasing global supply by less than 1% after projected increases in demand from BRIC countries will reduce prices?

Or you can run away. I'm betting you'll run away.
 
Zyphlin said:
I'll be answering the question of the poll and OP, not necessarily the title.

Very little. Summer time, turmoil in the middle east, and the simple upward trend of oil prices are the likely largest culprits. Obama likely influenced it somewhat with the ban in the Gulf during that time and his policies are likely driving speculators to buy in ways that raise the price due to his policies not painting a good picture for oil. However, outside of that I think he's had little real influence on the price.

Now, I think there's things he hasn't done that would've had a POSITIVE influence on bringing prices down. However, not taking action to me isn't necessarily him "influencing" something unless he was specifically taking action to not take action (such as the gulf oil ban). So I don't consider that part of his "influence" on the prices of gas. Its too indirect of an association for me to really attribute it.
Click to expand...

The gulf drilling ban has not stopped a single drop of oil from hitting the market. It takes longer than this for a site to come online and start actually delivering oil.
 
Penrod said:
He is mostly responsible. Its what he wants. Look at his energy policies He has none other than to send us back to the middle ages using the sun and wind to power us. All he need do is say we are going to unleash all our energy resources and the speculators would speculate down instead of up.



Only a fool could think it wont.
Click to expand...

Given the math involved, actually, there wont be any significant impact no matter how much we drill.

Solar panels used to power electric/hybrid vehicles... that's your idea of the middle ages?
 
You people are going to have to stop worshipping your Messiah and realize the incompetent boob does very little that's right.

Some particular moron ordered drilling in the Gulf of Mexico stopped.

Figure it out.
 
Mayor Snorkum said:
You people are going to have to stop worshipping your Messiah and realize the incompetent boob does very little that's right.

Some particular moron ordered drilling in the Gulf of Mexico stopped.

Figure it out.
Click to expand...

Well, deepwater drilling, and in response to the Gulf a**holetastrophe.

I guess mayor snark'em doesn't vacation in the Gulf, so he doesn't care.
 
Deuce said:
Given the math involved, actually, there wont be any significant impact no matter how much we drill.

Solar panels used to power electric/hybrid vehicles... that's your idea of the middle ages?
Click to expand...

"No matter how much", huh?

What if we drilled enough?
 
The high gasoline prises is a worldwide problem, only international greedy Oil companies are guilty.
 
Mayor Snorkum said:
"No matter how much", huh?

What if we drilled enough?
Click to expand...

That's not possible. By the time new wells got going and the oil got to the world market...we couldn't possibly drill fast enough to change prices much in the short term. It ain't just digging a hole in the ground.

Even if we could drill that fast, the current spike is due to the loss of Libyan oil. Do we have the reserves to put that much oil on the market on a daily basis? My guess is that we probably couldn't.

If you want to show some numbers that back up your contention that we can drill our way to cheaper prices in the next month, I'll be more than happy to see them.
 
Obama is a socialist bent on destroying our country and oil executives realize this and use that to raise prices knowing he will only play lip service to he issue, never really doing anything about it. Oil will be king until it is gone, unless congress can somehow figure out how to bring the price back down and keep it there by legislation.

Will this happen? Probably not, which is why we are $rewed.
 
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