Lowest Gas Prices and the Presidential Solutions

Lowest Gas Prices and the Presidential Solutions

Hillary Clinton and John McCain are offering overburdened motorists a federal “gasoline tax holiday.” But economists say that the proposal is unlikely to actually lower the price of gasoline. McCain’s plan would essentially give federal funds to oil refineries, while the net effect of Clinton’s plan probably wouldn’t be much at all, although it would create a lot of new administrative work

This whole issue is a dialogue any of the presidential candidates could open if they really wanted to do something about America’s oil addiction. Because as any economist will tell you, nothing cuts prices faster than a sharp drop off in demand. If we consume less gas, we’re likely to pay less for it. That’s a bit of straight talk, though, that has been absent from McCain’s rhetoric about the gas-tax holiday. In the past McCain has called for tough fuel rules that would help combat global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. In spite of that he is the presidential choice of 70 percent of auto executives, according to a recent survey by Detroit’s Dykema law firm. But Dykema attorney and former GM exec Frank Dunne finds the climate-change hawk’s call for a gas-tax holiday “intellectually dishonest

The hunt for lowest gas prices continues

President Bush took another tack, suggesting a couple of golden oldies that he said would help halt the escalation in motorists’ costs: allowing companies to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and encouraging construction of more refineries.

But opening up ANWR would lead to a negligible bump in world oil supply, and would provide barely five percent of what the U.S. consumes today. The spigot wouldn’t even be fully opened until the mid 2020’s — if Congress acts now, which isn’t at all likely. And Bush fails to acknowledge that investors aren’t interested in building refineries for strong business reasons.

Congress has tried several times in Bush’s two terms to pass legislation to finally open the refuge to energy exploration, but always fell a few votes short due in part to concern over what drilling would do to ANWR’s wildlife.

All three leading presidential candidates, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, are against oil drilling in the refuge.

President Bush is trying to break our oil addiction with tougher new fuel economy rules that his transportation secretary, Mary Peters, announced this week on Earth Day. By 2015 every auto company’s passenger cars sold in America have to average 35.7 mpg, up from 27.5 mpg today, while minivans, SUVs and pickup trucks must average 28.6 mpg, up from about 22 mpg today. That adds up to an overall average of 31.8 mpg for all new vehicles sold in America by 2015, a big step up from 25 mpg today

This is a complex issue and so the search for lowest gas prices continues.

The cost of gas is only really a problem for those who can’t afford it. If , like me, you belonged to Its Good Business you would be financially secure and lowest gas prices would not be an issue for you.

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