U.S. Presidents have little effect on U.S. gas prices
Politicians of either party like to blame the current president for any uncomfortable increases in how much we pay for gas.
Not true, according to Mark Finley, Fellow in Energy and Global Oil at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He is a guest on this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall and says global actors play the primary role.
“During the pandemic, OPEC and a group of cooperating countries and Russia, engaged in the biggest voluntary national production cuts the world has ever seen,” he said. “And they’ve been very cautious in slowly dishing that oil back into the marketplace.”
Finley says that’s just one example of how outside influences impact our gas prices. He talks about what internal U.S. policies CAN make a difference and says the pain we are all experiencing is not equal.
“By itself, the price of gasoline has accounted for 20% of all of the consumer price inflation in the U.S. in the last year and we have to ask ourselves, where does that burden fall? The data shows that it falls most heavily on low-income families.” he added.
See Finley’s interview on Houston Newsmakers Sunday at 10 a.m.
You can also watch how Finley breaks down the impact the world politics has on US gas prices in this week’s Houston Newsmakers EXTRA. Click here to watch.
How will history view the 45th President of the United States?
Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D., is the Chair of the University of Houston Department of History. She’s been watching the January 6th hearings looking into the attack on the Capitol.
She says what she sees is troubling.
“With all due respect to American citizens who support the former president, if the justice department does not act to investigate and ultimately bring charges against Trump Administration election officials for this episode, then we really will lose our democracy,” she said. “We can’t know for certain what did or did not happen until the matter is tested in a court of law.”
Dr. Young says it may take many years for the American public to reach a consensus about what happened but historians are already writing the story of an attempted coup.
“He did not want to leave the White House even though he had been defeated and he knew that he had been defeated and that is, to say the least, highly irregular and illegal so history will record that,” she said. “And I think historians already know that.”
This is an interview Trump supporters will NOT want to see. For the record, Houston Newsmakers welcomes an alternate point of view.
Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall Every Sunday at 10 a.m. right after Meet the Press.
- · Mark Finley, Fellow in Oil and Energy, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
- · Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D., Chair, UH History Department