Politics of Gas Prices
I am not going to begin to go into the truth behind gas prices. The actual explanation for the doubling of gas prices in the last ten years ot so is an amalgym of at least two dozen factors that is only well understood by energy trader experts. To say 1 thing, especially some sort of oil company conspiracy, is at fault is beyond ignorant. If you believe that, please either promise not to vote in the future without my approval or just move to Canada. People should learn that "record profits" occurr half the time for companies because they grow and the raw profit numbers are a record... even though when adjusted for inflation or when profit is compared to total revenue the numbers are rarely truly "record". By analogy... did Bush win an all time record high approval from the American people in 2004? According to the raw number of votes he received, yes. According to the % of votes received from total votes cast... not even close.
All of that aside... people love to blame oil companies almost as much as they like apple pie and fireworks. Therefore, the best political answer to this question is simple... propose to do absolutely EVERYTHING. The party that wants to be seen as the savior of pump prices must propose doing all 30 things that could conceivably reduce prices in the short, medium, and long term. Sure, propose a meaningless investigation of oil comapnies. There have been dozens and not one has ever actually produced evidence that there has been price fixing or collusion. With that, propose to cut or abolish the federal gas tax, stop depositing oil into the strategic petroleum reserve, pass higher fuel efficiency standards with an exception for pick-up trucks and SUVs so you don't piss off middle-America, throw money at alternative sources of energy, drill in Alaska and elsewhere for oil, build more refineries to make oil into the zillions of different fuel blends different states use and finally start switching to nuclear based civilian power to free up expendable resources. Since everyone in America likes at least 2 of those options, everyone will be at least content that the government is doing something. Moreover, since you proposed everything first, the other party can't propose anything you haven't and therefore can't take any credit for doing anything.
I hope the Republicans realize that this is an opportunity to portray themselves as doing something while Democrats just blame people. If something like this isn't done, both parties will look bad but the party in power almost always takes the bigger hit. I think Republicans have a better chance of proposing something like this because there isn't an overarching interst group in the coalition that would hold-up a bill like this for a single provision. Democrats, however, would never get some of the above by the environmentalists. Whomever is the first to propose something like this, and actually work on it, will get a 5 point bump in polls because Americans wrongly perceive gas prices as being the most important economic issue for the country.
All of that aside... people love to blame oil companies almost as much as they like apple pie and fireworks. Therefore, the best political answer to this question is simple... propose to do absolutely EVERYTHING. The party that wants to be seen as the savior of pump prices must propose doing all 30 things that could conceivably reduce prices in the short, medium, and long term. Sure, propose a meaningless investigation of oil comapnies. There have been dozens and not one has ever actually produced evidence that there has been price fixing or collusion. With that, propose to cut or abolish the federal gas tax, stop depositing oil into the strategic petroleum reserve, pass higher fuel efficiency standards with an exception for pick-up trucks and SUVs so you don't piss off middle-America, throw money at alternative sources of energy, drill in Alaska and elsewhere for oil, build more refineries to make oil into the zillions of different fuel blends different states use and finally start switching to nuclear based civilian power to free up expendable resources. Since everyone in America likes at least 2 of those options, everyone will be at least content that the government is doing something. Moreover, since you proposed everything first, the other party can't propose anything you haven't and therefore can't take any credit for doing anything.
I hope the Republicans realize that this is an opportunity to portray themselves as doing something while Democrats just blame people. If something like this isn't done, both parties will look bad but the party in power almost always takes the bigger hit. I think Republicans have a better chance of proposing something like this because there isn't an overarching interst group in the coalition that would hold-up a bill like this for a single provision. Democrats, however, would never get some of the above by the environmentalists. Whomever is the first to propose something like this, and actually work on it, will get a 5 point bump in polls because Americans wrongly perceive gas prices as being the most important economic issue for the country.