Chinese traffic jam--worst in history--Aug. 14-26, 2011 |
Of course what he's promised is to stop stopping American oil producers from producing oil, as he's accued Obama of doing. Including blaming Obama for slowing down Gulf oil platform operations like the one BP owned that blew up. Does anyone outside of the states around the Guilf remember that?
But suppose we opened the taps, drilling offshore, in Alaska, everywhere, dumping our reserve capacity into the refineries, and built the Keystone pipeline..
First, America is no longer a major oil producer. Second, the burgeoning middle classes of China and India--each the size of America's total population--are buying cars and driving them. Third, unless we nationalized our oil companies, oil production in America is in the hands of private, for-profit, multinationals.
So the modest increase in oil supply would be promptly sold on the world market--much of it snapped up by China and India--at prices set by the oil cartel, OPEC.
Change to American gas prices: pretty much nada. American gas prices are the same as prices in Europe, except for us subsidizing drivers more here with a lower gas tax. But on a day by day basis, except for that tax differential, Americans pay the same at the pump as their French, German, and Brit counterparts--and have done so at least since the mid-1990s.
These facts were pointed out by all the pundits on Fox News--back when gas prices soared during Bush II's presidency. They only started lying about it when prices rose during a Democratic presidency.
And nearly all the Congressional Republicans always vote against raising gas mileage requirements, of course. Now their mantra has become God, Gays, Guns, and Gas....
Therefore, since Romney et al claim they can affect gas prices, they'll have to eliminate the competition for gas: China and India...and OPEC.
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