Oil Prices, Gas Prices and Domestic Production

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 The prices that we are paying for oil and the products refined from oil, such as gasoline, are set on the world market.
 The prices that we are paying for oil and the products refined from oil, such as gasoline, are set on the world market.
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Weekly retail price for premium unleaded gasoline, including taxes, January 1996 to October 2011.
Weekly retail price for premium unleaded gasoline, including taxes, January 1996 to October 2011.
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The great revival of U.S. oil production has made the United States a leader in global oil production growth.
The great revival of U.S. oil production has made the United States a leader in global oil production growth.
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U.S. oil production and gasoline prices, percent change, year-over-year, 1990 to 2011.
U.S. oil production and gasoline prices, percent change, year-over-year, 1990 to 2011.
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Percentage of U.S. liquid fuel consumption imported 2005 to 2020.
Percentage of U.S. liquid fuel consumption imported 2005 to 2020.
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U.S. oil production 2000 to 2010.
U.S. oil production 2000 to 2010.
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U.S. natural gas production 2000 to 2011.
U.S. natural gas production 2000 to 2011.
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International natural gas production 2008 to 2010.
International natural gas production 2008 to 2010.

“I wanted to speak for a few minutes about gasoline prices, which my colleague from Utah just talked about a few minutes ago. Also, about domestic oil and gas production and also about access to federally-owned oil and gas resources. These are issues that have been raised by numerous senators on this Transportation bill. They are issues of critical importance to our country’s economy, to national security and to resource management. And I’ve been increasingly concerned that the issues that we’re debating, and the facts that are being put out there are often not the true facts. There is widespread misunderstanding of what needs to be done to deal with this set of issues, in my opinion.  

“Let me start with the issue that’s most important to most Americans – and that is, the price of gasoline at the pump, and the price of oil. We need to understand clearly what is causing this, and we need to be direct with our constituents about what is causing this.

“Let me state this as clearly as I can – what I believe is really without dispute among experts. That is, we do not face cycles of high gasoline prices in the United States because of a lack of domestic production. We do not face these cycles of high gasoline prices because of lack of access to federal resources, or because of some environmental regulation that is getting in the way of us obtaining cheap gasoline.

“As was made clear in a hearing we had in the Senate Energy Committee in January, the prices that we are paying for oil and the products refined from oil, such as gasoline, are set on the world market. They are relatively insensitive to what happens here in the United States with regards to production.  Instead, the world price of oil and our gasoline prices are affected more by events beyond our control, such as instability in Libya last year or instability in Iran and concerns about oil supply in Iran this year.

“First, I’ve got two charts that I think clearly make this point very clearly.

  • Published on Apr 11, 2012
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