For not pandering to the public on this issue.

Saying there is nothing they can do about gas/oil prices (and accepting it Alex!!!) is absolute bullshit. Look at the numbers. Oil prices began their unprecedented spike in 2003. Do you really expect me to believe that demand for oil has increased THAT dramatically over the last five years? Give me a f'ing break.

Here's a graph of crude oil prices adjusted to 2007 US dollars.

http://www.wtrg.com/oil_graphs/oilprice1947.gif

Want to be elected President by a REAL landslide?

Promise that you'll encourage the leaders of the other major countries to join AMerica in instituting a price cap on a barrel of crude (Using the benchmark),, $50.00US, no more.

Screw the Speculators. Screw Big Oil. And yes, Screw "Free Trade" which is a lie anyway.

Restore the economies of everyone. And tell every bicycle-riding Luddite enviromentalist cry-baby to pound sand, too.

It's the right thing.

I'm really disappointed in his answers right now. When he says "we need to invest in wind, solar, and biofuels" I cringe every time. Two of those don't do anything for transportation energy and the third is a horrible idea in the long-run.

You know, I'm not sure what to do but that isn't really the point. The point is Obama or McCain should. This is a country wide issue that can be solved by federal incentives yet each has really nothing to offer. Honestly, if we drilled in ANWR, offshore, and got rid of the federal gas tax - that would at least show some lessening of prices. Voters might respond to that, as ill advised as those ideas are, if Obama can't deliver on something we all understand and see as a solution for the future of transportation energy.

"Obama's advisors seem to be right about that."

Based on what, Koppleman? I have heard extensive coverage elsewhere on the the "Enron loophole" and how it may be driving gas prices. Some have said that hedge fund investment in oil futures has skyrocketed this year-- a huge influx of players in a market might explain much of the runup in crude prices. The latter is probably just the free market at work, but the former certainly isnt.

I dont know if these are a big, small or non-factor in oil prices. But ignoring them is silly.

Yes, but look at what it will do for oil company profits to be sitting on that much untapped oil? That is the only logical reason for it. No wonder Bush has been yammering about it.

It's odd, there isn't much that can be directly done to immediately lower oil prices, but Salon is reflectively against every single idea.

Saudi is going to increase production by 200,000 barrels per day, it's not much at all, but there isn't much excess capacity at the moment. The US put in 90,000 per day into the SPR, not doing so is the same as increasing production by 90,000. Almost half what the Saudi’s are doing.

No, offshore drilling isn't going to reduce prices this year, but it will in the next years. The US has over 20 Billion barrels of proven reserves on Federal offshore lands that aren't being tapped. If States chose to tap this, why not?

It would be up to CA, TX and LA to chose whether or not to allow more drilling.

How exactly is that wrong?

How much oil is offshore? In Alaska?

Not nearly as much as in the Middle East, and they've been producing it for years.

Producing more oil is like building more freeways. The need will always exceed the supply.

There is no oil shortage today. The petroleum industry is reacting to the increasing need for fuel by placing a higher value on supply. This is capitalism. This is what the American business model is built upon.

Increasing the supply of crude oil by drilling new wells will be incredibly expensive and the anticipation of future additional supply coming on line will drive down the desire to conserve today, in expectation that supplies will increase (also driving down price) and all will be well.

It won't work that way because the need for oil is increasing at a rate that essentially commits any future increases in oil production to keep pace with that need. Growth will continue to meet or exceed supply.

The only solution is conservation and new energy efficiency technology.

Apparently our present and future leaders lack the vision or intelligence to deal with this.

"Honestly, if we drilled in ANWR, offshore, and got rid of the federal gas tax - that would at least show some lessening of prices."

Why do you assume that opening up any of those areas would lead to actual drilling, or that any reduction of the federal gas tax would be passed on, or have much of an effect? Wouldn't it simply increase demand, therefore raise prices further?

I don't see fully built windmills dropping out of the sky and hooking themselves up to the grid, for free. Do you? I don't see massive factories churning out solar cells (which is quite polluting) to pop into vast solar electric combines.

What I do know is that everyone wants someone else to provide for them. Someone else, somewhere else to drill for oil and mine for coal and build those scary nuclear plants. But everyone else is somewhere else. And the Army Corps of Engineers has already stated that for the most part every significant source of hydroelectric power in the US has already been dammed. So unless Salonfranciscans plan on freezing in the dark, hungry with the rest of us, there is no someone else somewhere else to bear that burden so that middle class urban hipster types can blog at Starbucks about what filthy philistines the rest of us are for objecting.

Since everything so far is a horrible idea, and, the last time I checked, you can't plug your tofu hybrid car into Mother Gaia, I'd love to hear what other suggestions anyone actually has.

And if your objection is something about instant gratification then I suggest the problem is with you and not the rest of everyone else. It's pretty childish for a gaggle of seemingly educated people to object to anything new aka 'progress' just because Santa Che won't deliver it tomorrow on his Marxist sled full of slave free toys. Ok so it won't drop prices 'tomorrow'. Folding your arms and stamping your feet seems hardly a useful alternative.