Out of all the 24 hour news channels, Fox News always seems to hook my attention. This is not because I agree with the network as I barely consider what they do as “news”. With gas prices on the rise, I see a lot of segments on Fox criticizing president Obama. They often have panels discussing what the president should do about oil prices. I don’t know enough about economics to give you a thesis on the supply and demand of oil. I don’t know enough science to tell you how much oil there actually is left in the Earth and what is sustainable and what is not. However, I do think I can say that Obama doesn’t control how much oil is left in the Earth and does not have the authority to create more oil. Oil is a finite resource that Obama has no control over.
Now with that in mind, Obama can create the illusion of cheaper gas. He can do this through military means which has many levels of costs. In the long term, it hurts our relationships with other countries which could end up costing us more later. Also, anytime the military is involved, we the people are directly financing military action. Obama could also choose to subsidize the oil so that we can see gas around the three dollar mark at the pumps, but obviously that doesn’t mean the oil was actually cheaper. It’s simply just the illusion of cheaper gas. We don’t see the cost of barrels of oil every day, but we do drive by gas stations every day.
So, with a wider perspective and some mildly critical thought we can see that Obama has little, or even nothing to do with the supply of oil. Sure, Obama can influence how much oil is allocated for the United States by countries on top of oil reserves, but this still has little to do with how much oil the Earth actually has. It’s fair of Fox News to be critical of Obama, and I think we all should be. However, what Fox should actually be pressuring Obama to do is to come up with a long term plan on sustainable energy because no human being can actually make more oil.
