Then, in April of 2008, when Barak Obama was running for president, he held a similar press conference where the gas sign in the background showed regular gas at $3.55. He lamented about families struggling from rising energy costs, and noted that the fastest rise was in the price of gas--reaching its highest level in nearly 30 years, and he said that for most Americans it was a "huge problem, bordering on a crisis." He indicated that there has been a lot of talk about lowering gas prices since the early 70's, but with no apparent change. He then suggested that the reason he was running for president was to make that change and to challenge the "broken system" in Washington where gas prices had continued to rise. (See HERE) He remarked, "I meet folks every day who have to drive a long way to get to work and filling up this gas tank gets more and more painful and it's a tax out of their pocketbooks,'" (See HERE)
Clearly, Obama felt America's grief and promised to do something about it. That was nice.
However, according to gasbuddy.com, an independent organization that has charted the average cost nation-wide per gallon of regular gas (see HERE), the price started to drop sharply in the summer before the presidential elections, and reached a low of $1.43 just a month before Obama was sworn in. Yet, after becoming president, the price rose steadily for three years, and has vacillated between $3.90 and $3.31 ever since. And, as of 8/19/13 it was up to about $3.60 (five cents more than in 2008 when Obama held his gas station press conference). Gov. Jindal has remarked, "In 2011 [the third year of the Obama presidency], the average annual prices of a barrel of oil and a gallon of gas were higher than at any time in the last 150 years." (See HERE)
As it turns out, the rise in gas prices was due in part to Obama's EPA regulations, which also increased the cost for cars by $130.00. (See HERE)
Gov. Jindal also said: "the president could reverse a series of cabinet-level decisions that are at odds with a strategy of affordable domestic energy production. That starts with rebuking Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who once said that our goal should be to increase gasoline prices to the levels seen in Europe. It also means suspending regulations like Tier 3 gasoline standards that are expected to increase gas prices by 25 cents a gallon. (See HERE)
Thus, while Bush saw gas prices drop by more than 50% during his last months as president, Obama saw gas prices continue to rise more than double throughout his first term. So, the leftist LUNC of Obama's energy policy here was that no change happened and no challenge to the "broken system" as promised, but evidently a perpetuation of the same old same O'l.
It is also customary for liberals to speak of high gas prices in connection with billions of dollars in oil company profits, suggesting that the American public is being gouged and ripped off by "big oil," and that this is terribly wrong This sentimant may resonate with a lot of people, particularly the anti-corporation crowd.
However, as noted in an article by John Stossel, if you compare what "big oil" gets from a gallon of gas as contrasted with the government, you may rightly have a change of mind about who really is doing the gouging and ripping off. Stossel said: "Per gallon, ExxonMobil makes about 7 cents. Governments, by contrast, grab about 27 cents per gallon. That's the average gas tax. If anyone takes too much, it's government." (See HERE)
NEXT START of SERIES SUBJECT INDEX
For an explanation as to why these Leftist energy LUNCs occur, please see: Gov: Wrong Tool for the Right Job - Introduction and Cold Nanny as well as The Politics of Compassion, Emotions, Ignorance, Denial, Blame-Shifting, and Victimization
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