What can the President really do to control the price of oil?

Question

I see it frequently in here the high oil prices are Bush's fault. To all of you that think it's Bush's fault, tell me how the President can do anything to change the price of oil? Can he write a presidential memo and make it go up or down? If he were to order all the troops out Iraq today whould that make the price go up or down? If he were to request Congress legislate the price of oil( how long would it take Congress to act anyway) would that have any effect?

If a Democrat were President would there be anything different and why?

Can US Government really do anything to effect the price of oil on the world market?

Answer 1

I am sorry you couldn't get a real answer to your question. There is nothing the President could do to change the price of oil for anyone. If you notice the price of oil goes up when a hurricane is in the Gulf, the fires were burning in Kuwait, and with the talk of ending dependency on oil to resources within our own boundaries it will consistently go up. The name Bush, the state of Texas, are synonymous with oil ergo it becomes easy to create a conspiracy that this is in fact President Bush's fault.

Answer 2

He could stop buying 100,000 barrels a day for the strategic oil reserve. Or, like Clinton did, he could release a million barrels a day for thirty days from the reserve.

From the DOE:

"The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists, first and foremost, as an emergency response tool the President can use should the United States be confronted with an economically-threatening disruption in oil supplies."

From CBS News:

"Clinton said he took the advice of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and energy experts, "including the vice president," when he decided Friday to draw 30 million barrels of oil from the government reserve in the face of continued high prices dictated by policies established by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "

An influx of 1.1 million barrels a day will drive down prices.

Answer 3

How many times have the oil brokers raised the price of crude because of, "Worry about what's going on in the Iraq"?. If George Bush's Father didn't let Saddam get away during Desert Storm, we wouldn't be fighting a war there.

Answer 4

taking over iraq ,firing all the oil workers and replacing them with a bunch of halliburton people wasn't a good start.so these guys go home and stew about their plight ,they can't work and feed their families and all they know about is oil pipelines refineries etc. along comes abdullah al quata and says i'll pay you to see that the infidels don't get a drop of oil from iraq.former oil worker is like 'not a problem'.

Answer 5

of course, when bush makes statements like WW3 and possible strikes against iran... it causes instability in the country (in case of an attack) and disrupts the availability of oil in the world.

the way opec works is if a member country is supplying less oil, then prices go up for the entire world. globalization!

if a democrat were president things would be different because they would isolate themselves from venezuela and iran (opec members) and let iran go nuclear (then destroy the nuclear facilties once they are built as israel did in syria)

the answer to the last question is yes... diplomacy

ciao,

Answer 6

Nothing. He can influence the price of oil, a little, by increasing buying for or selling from the strategic reserve affecting domestic suply, and demand for foriegn oil, and he can make speaches to call for conservation or calm to reduce domestic demand.

No one actually controls the price of oil. OPEC, for instance, can set production quotas higher or lower to alter supply, and thus put preasure on prices, but demand is determined by it's customers. And, OPECs members sometimes exceed thier quotas, so it's control is imperfect at best.

Answer 7

Called bad POLICIES. He is the one who sets them. HE is the one who keeps getting the US into trumped up wars in the middle east...Iraq has been proven unnecessary time and time again. The fact also stands that Iraq has all but ceased in oil production because there is so much war going on. Afghanistan now has that oil pipeline that the elite has been wanting so badly. And there is documents proving that there was intent from the oil comp. (which this president is heavily involved with) that they PURPOSELY cut down refineries output to create more of a supply/demand problem.

Answer 8

Well, legally not a whole lot. Unless of course he issue an
executive order forcing the price down or preventing raises.
I Cr 13;8a

Answer 9

This particular president has long-standing family ties with the Saudis, so he could do more than most to help regular people who need gas to get to work. His problem is that he doesn't KNOW any regular people who go to real work, and is incapable of feeling empathy for anyone who's not just like himself.

Also see pretty_smart's answer, above.

The best thing we could do is develop alternative energy sources, then tell the Middle East to FOAD once we don't need their oil, then withdraw all our people and all our assets from the Middle East, then let them all kill each other if that's what they want to do.

Answer 10

He could order all of the environmentalist like Al Gore to sell their private jets, downs size their houses, and buy hybrid cars! This would save oil, and the planet!