washington times -- Feeling pain at the pump? Gas prices have doubled since Mr. Obama took office. According to the GasBuddy gasoline price tracking web site, the price of a gallon of regular gas was around $1.79 when Mr. Obama took office.
Today the national average is $3.58. The lowest average price in the continental United States is $3.31 in Tulsa Oklahoma, the highest is $4.14 in Santa Barbara, CA. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has arrived on average throughout California, and a number of other states are headed in that direction.
Consumer price index (CPI) figures from February show an unadjusted 12 month gasoline inflation rate of 19.2%, but in the last month alone prices jumped 6.8%, probably because of oil price increases due to instabilities in the Middle East. If the trend continues, gas prices would double again within a year.
100% gasoline price inflation is nothing to brag about, but imagine Mr. Obama going into the 2012 election having to explain why gas costs $7.00 a gallon. I'm sure the White House would spin it as one of their "Green" initiatives.
Blog author's comments - The recent unrest in the Middle East has had some effect on rising prices but a significant factor has been increased oil demand worldwide.
If the Obama administration had wanted to keep prices down they could have increased domestic oil production but, President Obama cut production. Last summer Obama instituted two drilling bans in the Gulf of Mexico. The offshore drilling ban will cut domestic offshore oil production by 13 percent this year.
For many years the 'Green' environmentalists along with the Democrat Party have lobbied against the U.S. drilling for our own oil. Obama does not want us dependent on oil, but the technology he wants to replace our dependency does not exist and will not be available for many decades if ever.
Interior Secretary Salazar canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah in his first month in office. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management, there are 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation, which goes through Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Obama has also failed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil lie beneath a few thousand acres that can be accessed with minimal environmental impact. Those 10 billion barrels are equivalent to 16 years’ worth of imports from Saudi Arabia at the current rate.
As most of us know the economy is in bad shape because of the Obama administrations policies, agenda and out of control spending. The increased gasoline prices will make it worse.
h/t: heritage.org
cartoons: Michael Ramirez & Gary Varvel
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