- Open up shores for drilling
- Open up the Arctic for drilling
- Help fund research for getting oil out of shale rock for profitably
- Build more refineries
Alright, on the surface this seems like a good plan. However, its missing something...
Above is a chart of the average price of gas (averaged annually) in the US with a comparison of adjustment for inflation.
So it seems we have a few issues here.
It would appear that the price of gas is not out of control as much as we are:
- Losing value on our dollar
- Getting price gouged on our gas
- Suffering from oil suppliers with holding oil to keep demand high
Bush proposes more sites to get oil, but that doesn't fix suppliers consciously with holding oil to keep the price high (both domestic and foreign). It also doesn't fix inflation. It only addresses additional supply, but in no way guarantees America will see the benefit of these extra allowances on the oil companies.
This proposal fails to address the meat of the real issue. It fails to address the oil baron's record profits and it fails to address our weakening dollar.
In short, I would call this 'Bush's Placebo for the Masses.' No substance for the people and nothing but another dollar in the oil companies' wallet.
It's been a very sad week so far.
