Obama Energy Policies Have Cost Economy $358 Billion

Facts are sometimes nasty, persistent things that get in the way of the best political spin. 

President Obama likesto say that oil production is up and that the rise in gasoline prices is not his fault, but the facts challenge hiswords. Energy production is up, but only due to policies and practices set in motion ten years ago by theGeorge W. Bush administration, and production is up only on private fields. Exploration and productionon public lands has declined under Obama, and the facts are simply getting in the way of his rhetoric.

Unfortunately for the American people, the facts relative to gasoline prices can actually be measured interms of a loss of wealth and prosperity. The national average price of gasoline across all grades andformulations when Obama took office on January 20, 2009, according to the U.S. Energy InformationAdministration (the “EIA”), was $1.89 per gallon. According to EIA data, over the three years and threemonths that Obama has been in office, the national average price of gasoline across all grades andformulations is $2.99 per gallon. The current price is $3.93 per gallon.

Economists estimate that for every $0.01 increase in a gallon of gasoline sustained for one full year, theeconomy loses $1 billion for that year. During the time of Obama’s term in office, this data showsthat the average sustained rise in the price of a gallon of gasoline has been $1.1028 per gallon. The costto the economy over Obama’s three years and three months in office, therefore, is $358.4 billion. With thecurrent price $0.96 higher than the average, expect a loss of over $285 billion in 2012 alone if the currentprice is sustained over the benchmark $1.89 through the end of the year.

To be fair to President Obama and do what he and his supporters have done consistently on the economy, acomparison of the data on this issue to data on the same issue from former President George W. Bush isappropriate. The comparison, to be consistent, will be the actual data during Bush’s first three yearsand three months in office and to the actual data during the exact same period of Obama’s time inoffice. 

According to the EIA, the national average price of gasoline across all grades and all formulationsover Bush’s first three years and three months in office was $1.50 per gallon. When compared to thesame $1.89 per gallon benchmark, the economy benefitted by $127 billion under Bush versus the lossof $358.4 billion under Obama for the same time in office. Inflation over both periods averaged lessthan 2% per year and therefore had little impact on the magnitude of these results.

Clearly, there are many issues that affect the price of a gallon of gasoline. However, those issues tend tofactor out over a long enough period of study. Three years and three months is certainly enough time tomake most of those issues moot relative to the results.

The point is simply that the American people need to pay more attention to the facts and less to therhetoric. President Obama boasts about how he is helping most American families; however, his poor energypolicies have cost the 120 million households in our country an average of $3,000 per householddue to gasoline prices alone.