Newt has my vote!

[min0 lee]

Gingrich woos with prospect of $2 gallon gas

TULSA, Okla.???Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is dangling the prospect of gas as low as $2 a gallon if he's elected.

The former House speaker has spoken in the past of gas dropping to $2.50 a gallon under a Gingrich administration. Monday's prediction, coming as Gingrich campaigned in Oklahoma, contrasts sharply with rival Rick Santorum, who told an Ohio audience that big-city Americans should brace themselves for $5-a-gallon gas.

Both candidates are citing new sensitivity over rising pump prices to push for relaxed regulation on domestic oil production.

According to AAA's daily fuel gauge, the national average Monday for a gallon of regular gas was $3.56.

Gingrich and Santorum have been highlighting oil exploration in North Dakota and slamming the Obama administration for delaying a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich dangled the prospect of gas as low as $2 a gallon if he's elected, playing off voter angst about rising prices at the pump.

Monday's prediction came as Gingrich campaigned in Oklahoma, where the oil and natural gas sector is vital to a bustling state economy.

"With Gingrich policies, what we know is we will dramatically expand our independence in the world market, dramatically expand our capacity to produce energy without regard to our foreign potential enemies and in the process prices will clearly be a lot lower," Gingrich said. "Now, I picked $2.50 as a stabilizing price for capital investment reasons. It could easily go down to $2."

According to AAA's daily fuel gauge, a gallon of regular gas was approaching $4 in some places and even topped it in California. The national average was $3.56 per gallon.

Gingrich boasted that gas cost as little as $1.13 per gallon when he led the House and that the national average was below $2 when Obama was inaugurated.

"Why do we have this assumption all of a sudden, `oh gee, that's the distant past,'" Gingrich said. "He hasn't been president that long."

Santorum focused on fears of prices climbing to record highs while campaigning in Ohio.

The former Pennsylvania senator blamed Obama for failing to drill aggressively for more oil and gas in the U.S.

Santorum said the economy has begun to improve slightly but "all of a sudden we're going to be hit with the same force of wind that hit us in 2008, in the summer, that caused us to go into a recession, all because of the radical environmentalist policies of this president."

Gingrich and Santorum have been highlighting oil exploration in North Dakota and slamming the Obama administration for delaying a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline they say could mean cheaper fuel.

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Associated Press writer Charles Babington contributed from Steubenville, Ohio.

 

[min0 lee]

The President has as much control of oil prices as DGG has control of the price of Bustelo coffee.

 

[withoutrulers]

You take that back, Newt Gingrich was sent here from God himself to lower gas prices by threatening the Saudi royals with purple nurples if they don't comply.

 

[troubador]

Gas prices don't matter much to me since I'll be working on the moon base defending the U.S. from space terrorists. If Jupiter gets nukes we're screwed.

 

[min0 lee]

Newt Gingrich in Florida shoots for the moon

Read more: Newt Gingrich in Florida shoots for the moon - Ginger Gibson - POLITICO.com

 

[IronAddict]

I tell you, these mother fuckers are like people running for school president, making all kinds of nonsensical outlandish promises...

Newt: "I am a strict constitutionalist"! But he'd just omit a few things....Just go away!

 

[LAM]

The President has as much control of oil prices as DGG has control of the price of Bustelo coffee.

doesn't that conflict with the "free market" ideology bs that they try to sell to the sheep?

it would also seem to imply that inflation is irrelevant even after everyone knows that trillions were injected into the financial system by the FRB after the banking collapse...many in DC certainly take all American's to be the fool

 

[deadlifter405]

The USA consumes approximately 20 Million Barrels of oil each day. In the 1950's, the USA produced over 10 million barrels per day. Current production is about 5 million barrels per day and perhaps falling due to loss of production in the Gulf as well as slowdown in Prudhoe Bay.

Why wouldn't "drill baby drill" which actually put into place policies to boost domestic production of oil by at least a couple of million barrels per day result in price drops?

When "W" threatened to open up everything to oil drilling due to $3.50/gallon gas the price dropped like a rock on the mere threat back under $2/gallon.

Seems like simple economics 101 here.

Okay, you can counter that the other oil producing nations will merely cut production to offset the increased USA production to keep the world production "flat" and keep prices where they are currently at. That is a valid argument no doubt. But, since oil production is wealth generation, wouldn't the domestic Big Oil companies be a better place to accrue that wealth than say sending $100Bs per year to the mid-east?

 

[LAM]

When "W" threatened to open up everything to oil drilling due to $3.50/gallon gas the price dropped like a rock on the mere threat back under $2/gallon.

Seems like simple economics 101 here.

crude oil prices are not simply based on supply and demand but also on the value of the USD since OPEC prices all crude sales off of that. then you also have to factor in the grade of the crude coming out of the ground.

then factor in the gas tax that American's pay which is the least in the OECD.

* you can never "go back" in time in regards to pricing for anything that is of limited quantity and priced in USDs.

Why gas in the U.S. is so cheap - May. 1, 2008

 

[while]

I'll be working on the moon base defending the U.S.(snip)

 

[Zaphod]

Deregulation of commodity trading certainly didn't help. The whole idea of deregulation was to bring prices down even more. All it did was drive them up.