Comments about ‘More domestic production won't make gas cheaper’

This year, for the first time in decades, the U.S. produced more oil than we imported. That being said, the article is basically correct. Oil is a commodity sold on world markets at whatever price the market will bear. Rising demand in China, India, Brazil and others will swamp any extra supplies we can drill here. Produce more and consume less is the key, but it still won't make gas cheap.

"...the administration has done something far more likely to help consumers than removing restrictions on oil drilling.That is its historic agreement with auto companies in 2009 and again in 2011 to raise fuel efficiency standards..."

This socialistic top-down imposed "solution" is not what consumers want. The new standards will require smaller, less safe cars and that many of them be powered by electricity, neither of which consumers want:

1)For 20 years now the top-selling vehicles in the US have been pickup trucks and SUVs because they are safer and more versatile than cramped high-mileage eco-death boxes.

2)After more than 10 years on the market hybrids have only captured an abysmal 2.2% share of the market and that represents a decline from 2.8% two tears ago.

3)In the real world these tiny cars don't get anywhere near the claimed fuel efficiency as evidenced by the recent well-publicized lawsuit.

4)Consumers are even less accepting of plug-in electric cars. Last year both Honda and GM failed to meet their modest sales targets. GM had originally planned to sell 45,000 Volts in 2012 but had to scale that target back when they barely sold 600 in January.

The good professor also fails to realize that high oil prices affect not only gasoline-powered automobiles (which environmentalists despise) but the cost of fuel for public transportation, school buses, eco-tourism and outdoor recreation equipment made from petroleum.

Experts and the Department of Energy is an oximoron.

Corn dog is correct. Top down "socialist" won't cause the solution. We just need to wait, and bottom up 'capitalist' forces will do the same thing for us.

Producing locally means that Iran will not hold us hostage. Do we need more reason than that?

@ Corn Dog

Detroit has resisted regulations for improved fuel efficiency for decades, and what was the consequence in 2008? It failed to innovate with fuel efficient cars, and no one wanted Detroit's SUVs, trucks, and gas guzzlers when gas hit $3 and $4 a gallon. So Uncle Sam had to bail them out!

While its true that SUVs and trucks were best sellers in the early part of this century, this was partly driven by policies set by the Bush Administration after 9/11 where businesses could write off the cost of extra large trucks and SUVs on their taxes. Implemented to stimulate the economy, it resulted in the negative effect of Americans becoming more dependent on oil -- the very commodity that was funding terrorism against America. The tax incentive distorted the market, and Detroit focused on gas guzzlers rather than efficent cars coming out of Japan and Europe.

As gas runs up to $4 and $5 a gallon, we'll see more Americans turn to natural gas and electricity (only about 1/4 the cost of gasoline). The plug-in Prius is expected to attain about 100 MGP with the supplement of electricity. Nissan's Leaf already has the cheapest per-mile costs of any car on the market today.

This article is non-sense! What controls the price of gas in supply and demand,like everything else! The demand is increasing worldwide, which increases the price! Don't believe it, get Obama to approve the Keystone pipleline and watch gas prices drop! Or drill a few more hundred oil wells and watch the price drop!
I am all for electric cars but where will we get all the electricity to run them? Coal fired generators or nuclear? Nope, too dirty, right? How about the solar and wind? Nope, not practical, yet. So, like it or not, your job and mine and the entire economy is still dependant on oil for the the forseeable future!

I hope people realise that this is just his "OPINION". That's why it's in the "Opinion Section".

Like a wise man once said... we all have the right to our own Opinion, but we don't have the right to our own facts. Personally I have a hard time believing that the fundamental laws of human nature and the natural law of scarcity are somehow suspended only when it comes to this one commodity (gasoline).

I'll allow him his opinion, but it's pretty much a FACT that supply DOES impact price. Always has... Always will.

Scarcity of an item allows greedy-men to increase the price... and is a naturally incentive to increase price (it's called the "LAW of scarcity"). Look it up.

I guess it's POSSIBLE that gas prices are already so inflated that any imaginable change in suppply could not effect price. But there's no proof, and we've ALL seen prices go down when demand goes down (like in the non-vacation months) and when supply is increased (like when OPEC increases production). And we've all seen prices go UP when supply is disrupted (like wars in supplying countries or damage to refineries, hurricanes, etc). So to insist that supply & demand have no impact on price for just this ONE MAGIC COMODITY... Just seems ludicrus to me.