LF: Obama blames high gas prices on Iran (Israel/Obama attack)

Title: Obama blames high gas prices on Iran (Israel/Obama attack)
Source: USA Today
URL Source: http://content.usatoday.com/communi ... ice-factor-iran/1#.T24As3JKixR
Published: Mar 24, 2012
Author: David Jackson
Post Date: 2012-03-24 13:43:22 by Hondo68
Keywords: uncertainty about Iran, international sanctions, Israel and the United States
Views: 322

For all the domestic political talk about high gas prices, President Obama says one major factor can be traced overseas: Iran.

"Right now the key thing that is driving higher gas prices is actually the world's oil markets and uncertainty about what's going on in Iran and the Middle East," Obama said in an interview with AAA. "And that's adding a $20 or $30 premium to oil prices, and that affects obviously gas prices."

Obama also cited Iran during his recent two-day western tour to discuss gas prices, and his "all-of-the-above" strategy that includes investment in new sources of energy.

"The main reason the gas prices are high right now is because people are worried about what's happening with Iran," Obama said in Oklahoma. "It doesn't have to do with domestic oil production. It has to do with the oil markets looking and saying, you know what, if something happens there could be trouble and so we're going to price oil higher just in case."

One major worry: the prospect of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, slowing the oil supply and spiking up prices even further.

Obama and aides are working to dissuade Israel from a possible attack, asking it to give international sanctions more time to force Tehran into forgoing the means to make nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, not weapons, and that Israel and the United States are fear-mongering.

AAA describes itself as "a non-partisan organization providing unbiased reporting of gas prices through its popular weekly Fuel Gauge Report."

AAA reports a national average of $3.89 per gallon today -- up from $3.58 a month ago and $3.28 at the start of the year.

Republicans blame the price escalation on Obama's regulation policies, and there are signs that the attacks are taking a toll on the president's political standing.

The president said:

First of all, I understand what folks are going through, because it wasn't that long ago that I was having to fill up my gas tank and drive to work, shuttle the kids back and forth to school and their events, and it takes a big bite out of folks' paychecks.
The challenge is that we've been going through this kind of cycle of ups and downs in gas prices for decades now. We don't have the control over our own energy security the way we need to.
And so what we talked about today was an all-of-the-above strategy that involves higher oil production here in the United States but also involves making our cars more fuel-efficient, expanding biofuels, using all the resources we can to try to lessen our demand for foreign oil, which makes us less vulnerable to price spikes over the long term.