Can the President Control Gas Prices?

Price of a gallon of gas have dropped in 2020 because demand has dropped as the coronavirus pandemic surges.

However, critics of any president are quick to blame the commander in chief for things that are totally beyond his or her control. (Of course, presidents and their supporters are equally quick to take credit for things that are beyond their control.) The price of gasoline is a perfect example. Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans took credit for low gasoline prices in 2019 [source: Rainey]. And when George W. Bush was in office, Democrats blamed him for allowing gas prices to rise from $1.45 a gallon on his inauguration day to $4.05 a gallon by June 2008 [source: Thaler].

The truth is that no president — Democrat or Republican, friend of "big oil" or supporter of alternative fuels — can do much of anything to affect the short-term price of oil, and therefore gasoline. The overriding factor that determines the price of oil from day to day is the market principle of supply and demand [source: U.S. Energy Information Administration]. It comes down to simple economics: When demand is greater than supply, prices rise.

The actual price of a barrel of oil is constantly changing, since oil is a commodity that is traded on the futures market. Buying and selling oil futures is called speculating, because you're making trades based on expectations of future supply and demand. And for a while, demand was skyrocketing. After the Great Recession ended, demand steadily increased as the global economy recovered and kicked back into high gear. To match that demand, U.S. oil production rose dramatically from around 5,000 barrels a day in 2009 to a record high of 13,100 barrels a day in early 2020 [source: Macrotrends]. Thanks in large part to the drilling technology called hydraulic fracturing (or " fracking"), American oil producers were able to keep pace with demand and keep gasoline prices stable. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic slashed global demand and hit the oil and gas industry hard. One upside of the global oil glut is lower gasoline prices at the pump [source: Associated Press].

So if gasoline prices are largely at the mercy of global fluctuations in supply and demand (plus the occasional pandemic), what can a president actually do, if anything, to influence gas prices? Find out next.

Gas Prices and the Oil Supply What about increasing the oil supply? Can't the president boost U.S. production? It's true that aggressive increases in U.S. oil production would bring the global supply closer to the demand for oil. Unfortunately, the U.S. is such a small player on the international oil scene — America controls only 4 percent of the world's oil reserves — that even if the U.S. doubl its current production capacity, still wouldn't make much of a dent [sources: NS Energy and Thaler]. It would also take a number of years to assemble the drilling rigs, pipelines and crew to make that type of production increase, meaning oil prices would be unaffected in the short term. The only way the president can quickly boost the oil supply to lower gasoline prices is by tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stockpile of more than 700 million barrels of crude oil stored along the U.S. Gulf Coast (a barrel of oil equals about 159 liters, or 42 gallons). In June 2011, President Obama released 30 million barrels of oil from the emergency reserves in response to crises in Libya and Yemen. President Bush also tapped the reserves in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, temporarily lowering gas prices 10 to 15 percent [source: The New York Times]. Experts agree, however, that these reserves should be used for emergencies only, not employed as temporary relief to market-driven problems. Author's Note: Can the President Control Gas Prices?

While gas prices might be a controversial topic for politicians, it's an easy one for economists. Virtually all economists agree that the U.S. president has very little control over the global price of crude oil, and therefore the local price of gasoline. If we can't rely on our leaders to help lower our fuel costs, we should rely on ourselves. The hard truth is that it's within our power to decrease the amount we spend on gas simply by driving less. I say it's a hard truth, because like most of you I depend on my car for all sorts of "important" things and resist the idea of cutting back. If I could afford a brand-new hybrid, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. In the meantime, the best thing I can do to lower gas prices is to lower the demand, one "staycation" at a time.

Exclusive Cover Reveal!!!

IT'S COVER REVEAL TIME!

I'm super excited to reveal the cover for my brand new mystery/suspense thriller NO MERCY! This is the sequel to TWISTED and I'm totally excited for you all to read it!

There’s no use in looking over your shoulder…

Tyrone Street and The Blue Lady, Stella Vaughn are back! One year has passed. Yet, one problem still plagues them…General Benson and FBI agents Smalls and Stone have kept their promise.

TO GET EVEN!

Street continues to be a target and the feds are plotting to kill everyone on his team.

There’s nowhere to run, no one to trust…

Carl Alan Smith continues his strange and chilling series as Street and Stella hook up with Jerome Gantt and Carrillo El Duque Sanchez in a deadly high-stakes pursuit of serial killers on the loose throughout the country. Bodies riddled with bullets are being found drained of their blood supply. Yet, there is no evidence of collateral damage or shell casings at the murder scene. Their investigation leads them on a cross-country chase where they discover the killers have connections to a sadistic futuristic killer that has ties to local law enforcement and government agencies.

They’re everywhere…

In his latest novel in the Encounter Series, Carl Alan Smith captivates readers again with gut-wrenching, chilling, twist and cutting-edge suspense with true-to-life characters so real they leap right off the page.

They can’t be stopped, hard to kill…

Cover Design by: Erskine Leonard

Cover Concept by: Carl Alan Smith

NO MERCY comes out later this spring!

You can read an excerpt here: https://carlalanpublishin

The Meaning Of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Holiday In 2021

Article from Forbes Magazine, January 10, 2021

Editors Pick by: Douglas Haynes - Contributor

Monday, January 18 marks the 35th anniversary of the federal holiday in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Signed into law in 1983 and first observed in 1986, the holiday is a deserving tribute to King for advancing civil rights and social justice through non-violent protest. His was only the second birthday designated as a federal holiday after the observance of George Washington’s birthday. The making of their respective holidays reveals the still unresolved tension between independence and freedom in the making of the United States.

Washington secured the nascent democracy as general and as its first president (1789-1799). As a Baptist pastor, King led a mass movement for freedom and human rights in the twentieth century. Washington accepted slavery even while he defended the revolution. In confronting white supremacy, King challenged a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the United States, one that denies equality for all. One was a slave owner. The other was descended from slaves.

At 67, Washington died on December 15, 1799 on his plantation in Mount Vernon Virginia. His wife Martha was at his side. At 39, King was a private citizen engaged in public protest when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. As president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King was preparing to lead a march in support of striking Black sanitation workers as part of the Poor People’s Campaign. Shot in the face, King died in the company of movement associates.

The country celebrated Washington in many ways, including readings of his farewell address and local parades. On January 31, 1879 Congress declared Washington’s birthday as a federal holiday. Even though Lincoln preserved the union during the Civil War, Washington’s birthday promoted sectional reconciliation. It focused attention on the country’s origins in revolution while ignoring slavery and the condition of Black Americans. Two years before Congress honored Washington, President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal troops from former confederate states. This decision would facilitate the restoration of unchecked white supremacy for nearly one hundred years.

Born in 1929, King’s existence as a Black man was always contingent and conditional. In insisting that America live up to its promise, Black men and women had no choice but to sacrifice their bodies and lives. King’s assassination was not the first. NAACP representative Medgar Evers was gunned down in front of his home in June 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi. Age did not exempt Black children from racial terrorism. In September four young girls—Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair—were killed when the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed.

Following King’s death, multiple petitions and bills submitted to Congress proposing a federal holiday in his honor failed to garner support. However, a growing number of states observed his birthday. In the second verse of the 1980 hit song Happy Birthday, Stevie Wonder ponders

I just never understood

How a man who died for good

Could not have a day that would be set aside for his recognition.

Because it should never be

Just because some cannot see

The dream as clear as he

That they should make it become an illusion

53 years after King’s death, the promised land where Black people “take their rightful place on earth,” remains elusive. The protests against police brutality and the demonstrations in support of Black Lives are a powerful reminder that the United States has yet to fulfill its promise to Black Americans. King’s closing words at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple the night before his death captures the purpose and meaning of Black protest and sacrifice. “I might not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

On this MLK Day let us all re-dedicate ourselves to building a promised land where Black protest and sacrifice are not a requirement to live in the United States.