Pinthouse Pizza
Come on Jim, Don't Blame Oil Industry; Blame Obama
RECEIVED Wed., Feb. 1, 2012
Dear Editor,
Must have been a slow week for Jim Hightower [“Hightower Report,” Jan. 27]. He had to invent a reason to blame the big, bad oil industry for something. He chose to accuse it of runnin' up the price of gasoline by shipping product overseas instead of letting us pollute our air with it here. Doesn't ol' Jim realize it's the Obama administration's policy to keep gas prices high through increased regulation and artificial market manipulation in order to adjust our behavior? Keep prices high and we don't buy as much of it, or so the theory goes. Must be workin' because refiners apparently have a bunch of excess capacity. They are doing what most businesses would do in that situation: ship their excess supply to hungry markets overseas. Obama gets a twofer: less gas consumption at home and a lower trade imbalance. Jim tries to make a three-pointer by blaming that pesky policy by-product, higher prices, and a huge burden for lower and middle-income voters, on the left's favorite boogeyman, the oil companies. Pretty slick. Must be an election year.
Must have been a slow week for Jim Hightower [“Hightower Report,” Jan. 27]. He had to invent a reason to blame the big, bad oil industry for something. He chose to accuse it of runnin' up the price of gasoline by shipping product overseas instead of letting us pollute our air with it here. Doesn't ol' Jim realize it's the Obama administration's policy to keep gas prices high through increased regulation and artificial market manipulation in order to adjust our behavior? Keep prices high and we don't buy as much of it, or so the theory goes. Must be workin' because refiners apparently have a bunch of excess capacity. They are doing what most businesses would do in that situation: ship their excess supply to hungry markets overseas. Obama gets a twofer: less gas consumption at home and a lower trade imbalance. Jim tries to make a three-pointer by blaming that pesky policy by-product, higher prices, and a huge burden for lower and middle-income voters, on the left's favorite boogeyman, the oil companies. Pretty slick. Must be an election year.
Mike Spence