LOS ANGELES: With gas prices higher than they’ve been since the 1979 oil crisis, consumers and politicians from the Republican and the Democratic parties are desperately seeking someone to blame.
It’s tempting to go after big oil companies. After all, they’re chortling over their quarterly profit figures while the rest of us are miserably tightening our belts.
But righteous indignation over windfall oil company profits shouldn’t blind us to the real scandal. The current high gas prices have more to do with foolhardy Bush administration policies than with greedy oil companies.
In the global marketplace, the price of oil is a simple function of supply and demand. When supply is low and demand is high, prices go up. And on both sides of the supply-and-demand equation, American consumers can thank the administration for the sorry situation we’re in. The administration’s irresponsible domestic energy policies have helped boost the global demand for oil, while its feckless foreign policies have helped reduce the global supply.
On the domestic policy front, it’s old news that the Bush administration has long thwarted meaningful efforts to reduce US dependence on oil. Despite President Bush’s admission in this year’s State of the Union speech that the US is ‘addicted to oil’, his administration has made few serious attempts to develop conservation programmes, tighten auto fuel standards or invest in alternative energy sources.
On the foreign policy front, administration blunders — from Iraq and Nigeria to Venezuela and Russia — are helping to ensure that global oil production is far lower than it could be. Yet the administration has mainly gotten a free pass on the ways its policies contribute to high gas prices for US consumers.
Start with Iraq, where the Bush administration’s inability to provide security has caused Iraqi oil production to plummet. Iraq has the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves, and before the US-led invasion in March 2003, Iraq was producing 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. In 2005, production was down to about 1.8 million barrels a day. So far, the outlook for 2006 is little better.
Or take Nigeria, where the administration has shown no interest in pushing for government reforms in the troubled, oil-rich Niger Delta.
Disputes over the share of oil profits that are returned to impoverished local communities have led to severe disruptions in production.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service
