At a speech in Florida today, president Obama answered those who jave attacked his environmental and energy policies as being responsible for the current high gasoline prices. Obama's response breaks down into two parts:
First, Obama did his usual, he blamed something or someone other than himself for the problem. This time Obama did not blame George Bush or Republicans since no one could believe that one. Instead, Obama blamed high fuel prices on tensions with Iran, rising demand from China and India, and speculation by Wall Street. Is he kidding? Really? It is true that there are tensions with Iran. It is also true, however, that there have been tensions with Iran since 1979 when the Iranians occupied the US embassy and took American diplomats hostage. Indeed, Obama seems to want to ignore that production from Iraq is at recent highs and that production from Libya is coming back after the recent fighting there. Since Iran is still selling all its oil on the world market, there is really no reduction in supply and no reason for prices to rise. Rising demand from China is also nothing new. China and India use much more oil than they did ten years ago, but nothing has happened in the last six months to increase Chinese or Indian demand. The current rise in prices has nothing to do with the Chinese or Indians. Well how about those pesky Wall Street speculators? That too turns out to be a phony. The flow of funds into hedge funds that invest in oil or other energy sources is actually negative for the last three months. That's right, there is an outflow of funds which means more selling than buying. Now this does not mean that there are no speculators in oil; there are always speculators in oil. What it does mean, however, is that there is no major push by Wall Street which could drive up the price of oil.
The truth is that the price of oil is being driven by a reduction in supply, a reduction which the USA could remedy simply if Obama would stop putting roadblocks in the path of domestic oil production. The fault is not with others; it lies squarely on Obama's shoulders.
Obama's second answer to high gasoline prices is another of his green energy programs. This time, however, he is not thinking small; he is thinking tiny. Obama wants to invest $14 million in a program to get fuel from algae. This nonsense (undoubtedly run by some big Obama contributor) will never produce a substitute for gasoline. But that is not all. Obama also wants to raise taxes on the oil companies. We all know that if one taxes something, one gets less of it. So, Obama's plan is to cut oil production through taxation. Less production means higher prices. But Obama still wants America to believe that none of this is his fault.
Obama has got to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment