Obama doesn't accept responsibility for gas prices

Obama doesn't accept responsibility for gas prices | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

byJoel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer 2-22-12

[full shoet post]

President Obama does not "accept responsibility" for high gas prices, his spokesman indicated today, arguing that Obama has done everything he could to bring down the price of oil and blaming the high gas prices on oil price increases caused by global factors.

"The president accepts the responsibility that he identified the next president should accept, back in 2008, which is the need to develop a comprehensive energy policy," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today when asked if Obama "accept[s] responsibility" for the high price of oil and gas. "If you're suggesting that there is responsibility for a rise in the global price of oil, it's certainly not because of anything he hasn't done to expand domestic oil and gas production," Carney added.

Asked if he believes it is fair for Americans to blame the president, Carney noted that gas price hikes are "a recurrent problem." He added that domestic oil production is at a record high right now and that Obama has opened "millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico" to drilling.

The conversation today stemmed from yesterday, when Carney was asked about the Keystone XL pipeline. He said that "the president did not turn down the Keystone pipeline," arguing that Republicans prevented a full environmental review from taking place.

Gas Prices Under President Obama in Pictures

January 7, 2011 Conn Carroll

Fact: President Barack Obama’s Energy Secretary Steven Chu wants to “figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” At the time he made the statement, gas cost $7 – $8 a gallon in Europe.
Fact: Since taking office, President Obama’s entire energy agenda has made a gallon of gas more expensive:

• Immediately after taking office in 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah.
• The EPA announced new rules mandating the use of 36 billion gallons worth of renewable fuels (like ethanol) by 2020.
• This summer President Obama needlessly instituted, not one, but two outright drilling bans in the Gulf of Mexico.
• After rescinding his outright offshore drilling ban, President Obama has refused to issue any new drilling permits in the Gulf, a policy that the Energy Information Administration estimates will cut domestic offshore oil production by 13% this year
• Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast, and the Pacific coast will not be developed, effectively banning drilling in those areas for the next seven years;
• The Environmental Protection Agency has announced new global warming regulations for oil refineries;
• Interior Secretary Salazar announced new rules making it more difficult to develop energy resources on federal land.