Presidents do not control gas prices

I've been saying exactly this for months and months.  Just because oil comes out of the ground in the USA doesn't mean it will stay here.  Oil companies will sell to the highest bidder.

Click the pic to enlarge.

Obama campaign takes on the lies in the GOP's latest attack ad

Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Campaign Manager, shares the facts about Big Oil's latest attack.


"Hi I'm Stephanie Cutter I'm the Deputy Campaign Manager here at Obama for America and I wanted to arm you with the facts about the latest attach from Big Oil. You may have heard of the Koch brothers they're secretive oil billionaires bankrolling Republican campaigns and now they're backing Mitt Romney. Pretty simple reason for this, President Obama would take away billions of dollars in unnecessary oil tax breaks --Mitt Romney would protect them.

So now they're spending six million dollars on an ad that is so blatantly false the Washington Post said that they have no shame.

Let's get the facts out because it's important that you guys know the truth. President Obama has helped create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs. Projects in all 50 states. And the way these oil billionaires and their front group completely ignore the truth is breathtaking.

Let's take some crazy examples from their attack ad. They claim the administration gave money to build electric cars in Finland. No, the Department of Energy's funding was specifically for U.S. jobs at U.S. facilities. Sure enough the company is employing 700 workers in California and their planning to build a plant in Delaware.

Okay another ridiculous claim: they said we sent money to China to build traffic lights. That's wrong again. Those traffic lights were built here, in this country, and helped expand our light manufacturing industry in this country.

They said we gave money to a company building solar plants in Mexico. Nope. And again, our money is going to a solar plant here in America with American workers.

These guys are going to say whatever it takes to tear down the President. They will literally say anything. They oppose expanding clean energy. They oppose higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.

So we're going to call their BS when we see it. And we need your help to call them on it too and to set the record straight.

So share this, Tweet it, Facebook it. I keep hearing about Tumblr and whatever that is please use that too. And thank you, for all of your help."

GOP blocks repeal of US Oil Subsidies

 

Via JMG:Even though the major oil companies are turning in world record quarterly profits, today the GOP members of the Senate killed a bill to repeal their massive multi-billion dollar tax subsidies.  Apparently, even with all the money the oil companies are making, they need tax dollars to get by:

Senate Republicans, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, today foiled President Obama’s plan to strip $24 billion in tax subsidies from the country’s largest oil companies, potentially fueling an election-year issue among voters disgruntled by escalating gas prices. The 51-47 vote was mostly along party lines. Most Democrats, including Senator John Kerry, voted in favor of eliminating the subsidies but fell far short of the 60 votes needed to withstand a filibuster. Only Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, joined the Democrats. Four Democrats -- Jim Webb of Virginia, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Begich of Alaska -- voted against repealing the subsidies. Begich and Landrieu represent states with large oil revenues.

This is the Republican politicians having their cake and eating it too. They pocket millions in Super PAC campaign support via Big Oil donations and they get to complain about the high price of gasoline.

In a recent CNN poll, 55% of those surveyed blamed the oil companies a great deal for the recent increase.

UPDATE: Think Progress points out: "The 47 senators voting against the bill have received $23,582,500 in career contributions from oil and gas."

AP Analysis: "Drill, baby, drill" won't drop oil prices

An Associated Press statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production contradicts the GOP attack claims that President Obama is responsible for the rise in gas prices.

AP's analysis showed no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump.

Political rhetoric about the blame over gas prices and the power to change them - whether Republican claims now or Democrats' charges four years ago - is not supported by cold, hard figures. And that's especially true about oil drilling in the U.S. More oil production in the United States does not mean consistently lower prices at the pump.

Sometimes prices increase as American drilling ramps up. That's what has happened in the past three years. Since February 2009, U.S. oil production has increased 15 percent when seasonally adjusted. Prices in those three years went from $2.07 per gallon to $3.58. It was a case of drilling more and paying much more.

U.S. oil production is back to the same level it was in March 2003, when gas cost $2.10 per gallon when adjusted for inflation. But that's not what prices are now.

That's because oil is a global commodity and U.S. production has only a tiny influence on supply. Factors far beyond the control of a nation or a president dictate the price of gasoline.

Much has been made about President Obama and blaming him for higher gas prices. But, as practically every economist has already said, Presidents have little control over gas/oil prices.

When President Bush and running mate Dick Cheney campaigned in 2000, they argued that as oil executives they could get oil prices down, with Bush saying, "I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply."

Yet it was during the last few months of Bush's term in 2008 that gas prices hit their highest: $4.27 when adjusted for inflation.

AND even if we did drill more here in the US, that doesn't mean the oil would STAY in the US.

I think there's a supposition that if we drill oil here, it will stay here. Oil companies, however, are happy to sell to the highest bidder - even if that's China or India and NOT the United States. There's no law saying "native oil" stays in the US.

Oil companies drill for oil and sell it to the highest bidder on the world market. Period.  There's no national loyalty based on where oil comes from.

Read the whole article. 

Repubs: "Democrats demonize oil companies"

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) has a message for Democrats who want to end tax incentives for major oil companies: don’t hate them because they’re rich.

I guess that's kind of like the old line "don't hate me because I'm beautiful." Except oil companies aren't beautiful.

Bishop said: “Let’s tax the oil companies. What a wonderful nonsequitor!” said Bishop sarcastically during a press conference Thursday. “How are you going to produce more oil by taxing oil companies? How do you actually believe that the tax will not be passed onto consumers?"

What Bishop loses sight of is by cutting oil subsidies - which are a gift - it's not a tax. When oil companies are making record profits, it's clear they can afford to lose US Government subsidies. I say Americans are paying enough at the pump. Why give the oil companies even MORE with our taxes?

Bishop’s remarks marked the introduction of a gas price reduction bill from the Republican Study Committee called the “Consumer Relief for Pain at the Pump Act,” which includes expansion of offshore drilling, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, setting limits on environmental lawsuits and streamlining the on- and offshore permitting process.

In other words, let's fix the problem by wrecking the environment and limiting how taxpayers can hold oil companies like BP responsible for messes like last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Seriously?

(via Politico)