Obama mocked the GOP idea that drilling for oil would lower gas prices...

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

I've already said he doesn't deserve the credit for the increase in supply but he deserves some credit for the decrease in demand as a result of his policies being put into place. Pricing is based on 000s of different things. Anything that changes makes a difference. Supply and demand are not monolithic??? they both have many components.

So you say that...

(1) the price of oil is influenced by worldwide supply and demand
(2) Obama did not do anything to increase the supply

So far, so good...

Here's my #3...
(3) Since worldwide demand is higher than it was last year, the price drop must be due solely to the increase in supply, which Obama deserves no credit for.

Now, I'll concede that without those new cars getting slightly better mileage, worldwide demand, and thus prices, would likely be a tick higher than they are now. But that's not the same thing as saying he had anything whatsoever to do with the current price drop, which seems to be a result of excess supply, which has at least something to do with frakking, which liberals would stop in a nanosecond if they could.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Here's my #3...
(3) Since worldwide demand is higher than it was last year, the price drop must be due solely to the increase in supply, which Obama deserves no credit for.

Now, I'll concede that without those new cars getting slightly better mileage, worldwide demand, and thus prices, would likely be a tick higher than they are now. But that's not the same thing as saying he had anything whatsoever to do with the current price drop, which seems to be a result of excess supply, which has at least something to do with frakking, which liberals would stop in a nanosecond if they could.

I never claimed he or his policies resulted in the price drop. However bc of his policies the price drop was a "tick" greater. demand would have been slightly higher as you say.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[scottw]

it's a historic increase in production...might get him chiseled into Mt. Rushmore


The increase in United States production in 2013 exceeded the increase of 836,000 barrels a day in 2012. The largest increase before that, of 751,000 barrels, was in 1951, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.

In percentage terms, the 15.3 percent increase in 2013 was the largest since an 18.9 percent gain in 1940.

American oil production fell steadily from the early 1990s through 2008, but has since risen for five consecutive years, largely because of increased production of shale oil. Not since the late 1960s, when production in Texas was peaking and Alaska oil was beginning to come on stream, has there been such a string of annual increases.

As a result, United States oil production climbed to the highest level since 1989, although it remains well below the record production of 9.6 million barrels a day, set in 1970.

The agency forecast that American production would continue to rise in 2014, adding 782,000 barrels, to 8.3 million barrels a day.

If that forecast proves to be accurate, United States oil production will have increased 46 percent over the three years from 2011 to 2014. There has not been a three-year increase that large since the years 1921-24, exactly nine decades earlier.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/bu...asts.html?_r=0

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

I never claimed he or his policies resulted in the price drop. However bc of his policies the price drop was a "tick" greater. demand would have been slightly higher as you say.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

We're mostly saying the same thing.

But the increase in supply, which did likely cause the price drop, is likely tied to frakking. And that's something that liberals never would have allowed if they could have stopped it.

I saw on CNN tonight that the average US family will save over $1,000 in 2015 due to the drop in oil price, which is due to increased supply. How much greater would supply be, and therefore how much lower would prices be, and therefore how much more money would we all have in our pockets, had we been drilling more aggressively?

And I can't wait to see what happens to demand for electric/hybrid cars for the next 12 months, with gas so cheap.

An interesting and challenging mess, not easy to draw a straight line between cause and effect. From where I sit, Obama will continue to claim credit for most good things and dodge responsibility for all bad things. We've come a long way from "the buck stops here".