U.S. President Barack Obama, under pressure from Republicans and the public to bring down gasoline prices, announced new measures on Saturday to expand domestic oil production in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
Elections are hard to win with high gas prices:
High fuel prices have dented Obama's ratings in opinion polls and threaten to dampen the economic recovery that is critical to his re-election in 2012.
Considering the lead time required to get oil to market from a new find this will ironically help whomever is in office after the elections of 2012.
I seriously doubt the President would have increased leases available to oil companies if gasoline prices were $2.00 a gallon versus the current $4.00.
There's a reason alternative energies are called alternative and its because they are much more expensive per unit of energy than gasoline. Until new forms of portable energy become cheaper than gasoline a President's politics will bend to the reality of high gas prices.
edit: if you are wondering why we are attacking Libya and not Syria, this is one reason.
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