The Democrats Have Absolutely No Defense For High Gas Prices

Gas prices have gone up as much as $.25 a gallon in the last 10 days in Southern California and there's no end in sight.  Ace reminds all of us that in the late 1990's/early 2000's we were debating oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and were often told that it wouldn't make any difference in gas prices because it would take 10 years to come on line:

Of course Democrats and their stenographers in the media will argue that none of this is Obama's fault. It's all Iran's fault, they say. Now technically, yes, instability caused by Iran is too blame for much of the recent hikes but there were also reasons beyond George W. Bush's control and yet we know he got all the blame back in 2008. . . .

When the spike really hits and Republicans claim we need more domestic supply the Democrats will say what they always say, "It will take a decade to get more supply online, we need conservation and unicorn power!", remind them if they had listened to us 10 years ago, we'd have more supply coming online right . . . about . . . now.

If there was hope for a recovering economy to save Obama in November, those hopes may be going out the tailpipes of America's cars. People faced with a rapid rise in prices will have to throttle back on other purchasing and once again the economy slows.

Add to all of this Obama's very recent decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline that would have brought more oil to American refineries from our neighbor to the north, and you have a perfect storm of political anger aimed squarely at Obama and the Democrats who supported that stupid decision.

Obama said long ago that he wanted to see gas at $5 a gallon to force Americans to conserve and support alternative (and failed) energy technologies. He's getting his wish...but not at the time he wanted it.

And this is still fixable. Here's something I wrote the last time we saw gas prices in this range:

He could fix this today. Gas prices are as much about emotion as reality. If traders perceive the possibility of tight supplies they panic and prices rise. If Obama were to simply open up Gulf drilling again, and even better yet approve new areas for immediate exploration, the impact on the traders would be quick even if it might be months before new supplies hit the market. We'd seen an immediate easing of pressure on the oil markets.

Add Keystone to that and even though supplies wouldn't hit immediately, the emotional impact would put downward pressure on rates moments after the measures were announced.