President Barack Obama could step in to ease soaring gas prices.
White House Chief of Staff William Daley said on “Meet the Press” yesterday that the president is considering tapping the strategic petroleum reserve in response to rising gas prices.
Tapping the reserve is a rare move that could ,would add some supply to the domestic oil market and could drive down prices.
The national average for a gallon of regular gas now stands at $3.51, or 13 cents more since last week.
Here in the city, AAA says the average price for a gallon of regular has risen to about $3.75.
The unrest in Libya has helped fuel rising prices.
“Gas prices are so unpredictable, you never know which direction they’re going to go in,” said a driver. “They promise us one thing, the next thing you know, it’s up another 20 cents, 30 cents. It’s going to put a damper on any holiday traveling. It just makes things difficult.”
“Speculation, that’s what makes prices go up,” said another driver. “One day the price of oil is one price, then the next day when they say that something happened 3,000 miles away, it jumps 10 cents. The same amount of oil is produced the day before as it is today. It’s speculation.”
A barrel of oil is selling at about $106 a barrel, which is the highest price since September 2008.
(Source: NY1)
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3 Responses
To driver number 2: The price of oil futures, which determines the price of gas, is just that. It is a forward looking price index.
Also, opening those reserves should not be looked at as a solution. It will only be a temporary relief. Its like using a band-aid to stop a river. In fact those reserves are really only for severe gas shortages. Repealing the domestic drilling ban would be a better tactic for the short to mid term. We need to increase the supply but more importantly we need to lower the demand. Alternative fuels are the only long term solution.
Yes it is called speculation and that’s the way the oil market works. The question s why the gas prices go up so fast if the oil drilled today ends up in our gas tanks in a month or two.
The obama regime is defying a court order and still hasn’t allowed drilling to start again in the Gulf. We need to drill HERE and drill NOW!!
The use of the startegic reserves is similar to the way the Federal reserve control;s the money supply. Rerlease is a temporary measure until prices stabilize on the open market.
It is something that should be considered before we destroy our environment with indiscriminate drilling.