Letter to AJC 2-27-2012
Newt Gingrich entered the realm of fantasy when he claimed that by increasing drilling he could reduce gasoline to $2.50 per gallon. Dream on! The only way that price is possible is through another full blown recession like we experienced as a legacy of the Bush administration.
Gingrich seems to ignore all the facts. US drilling under the Obama administration has surged. According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal in Aug 2011, the number of oil rigs drilling in the USA rose 60% last year and is the highest since 1987. Under the Bush/Cheney regime oil production in the US fell from 5.7 millions barrels per day to 5.0 in 2008. Under Obama that output has jumped back to the level it was when Bush first took office. Offshore drilling under Obama is at the highest it has been in a decade.
If Gingrich took the time to research the issue he would find that presidential actions have little effect on the ultimate price of gasoline. That figure is driven by free market demand and his comments are pure hypothetical posturing. In fact his plan smacks of government interference in the free market economy, something I thought was anathema to the conservative agenda.
The only reasonable way forward to reduce the impact of the price of gasoline, is to improve the efficiency of automobiles and transport in general. If we were to double or triple MPG then the net effect would be a lower gasoline cost in our budgets. Why don't the conservatives try to help the country and get fully behind that program and use the might of our engineering talent to reduce our dependency on oil by leading the world once again in truly innovative automobile technology?
Tom
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