Energy Independence

Republicans are having serious problems these days. Much of the damage was self inflicted by the slapstick performances in their presidential field, testimony that all comedy is not intentional. Party brass must regret having staged these debates. In addition the war on contraception isn’t going too well, the Fat Man is doing his utmost and there are signs of a mild recovery, something that the party has been unabashedly trying to prevent.
 
The best straw for these folks to grab at the moment is the price of gasoline. In criticizing Obama for delaying some controversial facilities such as the Keystone XL Pipeline, they ignore the axiom that the price of gasoline at the pump is a direct consequence of the world price of petroleum. Without specifying, they strongly suggest that there is something a United States President can do to influence this price.
 
This reasoning grossly overestimates influence of the United States on the price of a barrel of oil. Whatever chips we have to play are all on the demand side of the equation. Until now we’ve continued to devour this product at any price. On the supply side were small fry compared to Saudi Arabia and quite a few others. Our military eminence can’t help. There aren’t ripe fruit like Iraq around for picking these days. Our “exceptionalism” doesn’t travel as far as the oil market. If we doubled our output the effect on world market price would be negligible.
 
Republicans argue that Obama is keeping us from “energy independence.” Independence from whom? It may be old fashioned, but I refuse to regard what is the legal property of Exxon Mobil or any entity other than the United States Government, as “ours.” We don’t have any control over it as we do utilities. For a nation to become energy independent by producing more oil it would first have to nationalize its own reserve, and that’s not about to happen here.
 
None of these corporations are “one of ours” in the lingo in World War II films. They are multi-national corporations that allegedly work in the interest of shareholders, although my guess is the profits go disproportionally to management. As business people they are expected to seek the maximum price for their product and aren’t about to give American consumers a discount.
 
I see the matter of gas prices differently than most Americans. I think they should be considerably higher as they are in other industrialized nations. We produce two percent of the world’s oil and consume twenty percent. The choice of the vehicles we drive is one sign of our profligacy, an analogy only scratches the surface.
 
To those who disagree with the preceding paragraph, and I expect a few, don’t worry. I doubt if there’s a politician in the country who would admit agreeing with me.