Energy Independence
Did you know that our neighbors to the north are energy independent? They meet their own needs and sell their excess to foreign nations. I was so impressed to hear this. Becoming energy independent is a promise that both presidential candidates are making. But guess what! Canadians pay more per gallon of gas at the pump than we do down here.
I heard this on a radio show about energy and oil prices. I was surprised to hear that the price of gas has nothing to do with who happens to be president at the moment. The president’s influence is pretty much zero, nada, zilch. Gas prices, I learned, are driven by forces outside of any one nation’s influence. So much for either Republican or Democrat blaming the other party or taking credit for gas prices as they rise and fall.
I filled my tank at the gas station last night. The prices are really dropping. I don’t know who to thank for that.
Don’t get too giddy about what you heard on the radio. True, macroeconomics is much more complicated than even the leader of the free world can allow. High gas prices were used in 2004 campaigns against the incumbent (Pres Bush should open the oil reserves), so the tables were turned just the same.
That said, the current president has closed the Keystone pipeline and has done nothing to open public land or offshore drilling in the past four years. To say the pres has had “no control” is disingenuous. He has poured billions into alternative energy – much of which has gone belly up – but nada into natural resources that our infrastructure is still very much dependent on. I consider that economically irresponsible, and if he had done so, the gas prices would have not been as high as it is now.
Giddy? I think of giddy as when a person inhales helium.
You caught me off guard. It happens so often that I listen to radio while driving and then can’t find the program to get details later. However, I am pleased to announce that I did find what I had heard on the MPR web site. This isn’t the transcript but it is what I heard – it is short:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=163637629
Forgive me for believing the things I do. I forgive you, too, by the way. In this case, I have leaned toward believing that the president doesn’t have the control over gas prices because it fits into my larger belief that presidents don’t have the power we seem to attribute to them. We have three branches of government that are supposed to balance each other out. We change leaders every few years so powers tend to shift and damage done gets undone and steps forward are followed by steps backward. The only thing I admit to is that I like to exaggerate…thus the zero, nada, zilch comment. You might not agree with where I am at, but I sure don’t get angry the way I used to.