I have to say that both John McCain and Barack Obama are full of it when it comes to high gas prices.
Both men have to know that there isn’t much the government can do to drive gas prices down quickly, but because Americans want their gas cheap and fast, both are trying to pander as fast as they can with some very silly plans.
Drill Now? Okay, we should see that oil hit the market in about 10-20 years.
Windfall Profits Tax? Of course, because it worked so well in the 70s and 80s.
Rick Newman of US News and World Report, cuts through all the rhetoric and gives us all the real deal when it comes to high gas prices. It’s a good read, especially the last point he makes:
U.S. energy policy up till now has mainly been to keep gas prices low and consumers content. Artificially reducing gas prices would reverse trends that are actually helping to break our dependence on foreign oil. For the first time in years, for instance, Americans are driving less, not more. Gas consumption is going down. People are fleeing big sedans and SUVs in favor of right-size vehicles that get better mileage. More people are using mass transit. Those developments are direct responses to rising gas prices. If prices fall, Americans will go back to old habits, just as they did the last time gas prices skyrocketed and then fell after the oil shocks of the 1970s.
As the old saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention.” Obama and McCain both talk about the need for conservation and alternative fuels and efficient cars and that’s well and good. People have been talking about that for years, but when gas was at a buck ten years ago, no one was paying attention. Detroit was building SUVs right and left and we drove as if there was no tomorrow. It’s only when gas prices started to get towards $4/gallon that all of the sudden people were ditching their SUVs and people were being put on waiting lists for fuel-sipping cars like the Smart Four Two and the Toyota Prius. If the presidential candidates want to bring gas prices down, fine, but then don’t talk about fuel efficiency or breaking our independence from foreign oil: because cheap oil will only make us fat, lazy and even more beholden to foreign oil.
Maybe Jimmy Carter was right after all. Kind of.