This page was last updated on April 4, 2012.
President doesn’t control gas prices; John A. Lovra; Beaver County Times; April 4, 2012.
Since October 2004, Mr. Lovra has written a minimum of 18 letters. Lovra letters I critiqued are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“In response to Rachel E.K. Cain’s March 22 letter, I have a small history lesson for her.”
[RWC] As you will read below, Mr. Lovra could use “a small history lesson” himself.
“When George W. Bush took office, the price of a gallon of regular gas was $1.75. During his eight years in office, the price rose steadily to a high of $4.28 in July 2008, in spite of an increase in U.S. oil production during that time.”
[RWC] Mr. Lovra omitted some data and got other data wrong. According to the U.S. Energy information Administration (EIA), the average price for all formulations of regular gasoline at the pump was $1.471/gallon (not $1.75) at the time of President Bush’s inauguration.
According to the EIA, the average price for regular gasoline peaked at $4.114/gallon on July 7, 2008, not $4.28/gallon. The average price for all formulations of regular gasoline at the pump then dropped to $1.613 by December 29, 2008, and was $1.847/gallon on January 19, 2009, the day before President Obama’s inauguration. Accounting for inflation, the 1/19/09 price of regular gasoline was $0.067/gallon higher than when Mr. Bush took office.
“Even though it makes for good rhetoric during political campaigns, there is very little any president, Democrat or Republican, can do to lower prices.”
[RWC] This didn’t appear to be Mr. Lovra’s position when Mr. Bush was in office and Mr. Obama was campaigning in 2008. In his letter “Vote for change with Obama” (9/1/08), Mr. Lovra asked a bunch of questions, one of which was “Do you like gas prices over $4 per gallon?” Later in the letter Mr. Lovra wrote, “If you answered yes to these questions, go ahead and vote for John McCain, and you will get what you asked for: four more years of Bush policies.” It appears obvious Mr. Lovra’s position four years ago was the opposite of that expressed in this letter. What changed? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
“Since the largest percentage of the world’s oil is produced by OPEC, they are the only ones with the ability to significantly increase production enough to affect gas prices. Guess what, they aren’t willing to do that.”
[RWC] What makes Mr. Lovra believe “OPEC … [has] the ability to significantly increase production enough to affect gas prices?” Even if it’s true, you’ll note Mr. Lovra didn’t call for increasing domestic production.
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.