Hillary; I control oil prices

Proving that Democrats don’t understand market forces, Hillary announced that simply by her presence in the White House, oil prices will drop. “How?”, you might ask;(Daily News)

“I predict to you, the oil-producing countries will drop the price of oil,” Clinton said, speaking at the Manchester YWCA. “They will once again assume, once the cost pressure is off, Americans and our political process will recede.”

Clinton argued that former President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s actually started moving in the right direction toward energy independence, but his successor, Ronald Reagan, “dismantled” that work.

Jimmy Carter, huh? Invoking the ghost of Jimmy Carter’s famous “Malaise Speech” probably isn’t a good idea for a Democrat candidate. The only thing he announced was the formation of the Department of Energy. Oh, and he made some promises the Democrats never fulfilled, like this one;

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

Carter was in office for another year and a half after that speech (not to mention 8 years of Clinton), and we haven’t still haven’t built a refinery since 1977 – and that’s the main hinderance to lower gas prices in this country. We’re at maximum refinery capacity – all of the lower oil prices in the world can’t increase production.

Hillary makes the point in her speech that oil-producing nations are responsible for the price of our gasoline, that’s not entirely true. OPEC sets export quotas, but if our refinery capacity is maxed out, increasing quotas will only cause a glut in supply on the other side of refinery production – it won’t necessarily drive down the price of gasoline on this side of refinery production.

The only solution to lower gas prices is increased refinery capacity and tapping our domestic supplies off of our coasts and in Alaska. Until the Democrats open the door to that solution, they’re just yammering for purely political purposes.

Martin at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has more to say on the subject and much more detail by Blackhedd at Redstate. 

Category: Jimmy Carter, Politics