What Obama doesn’t know about oil, and what he thinks we don’t know, will hurt everyone.

Obama answered questions regarding McCain’s proposed gas tax holiday in Indiana on Saturday. From FoxNews:

“This is one of John McCain’s latest schemes,” Obama said, saying it would save drivers only $25. “That’s the federal highway fund that we use to build our roads and our bridges, you remember that bridge in Minneapolis? We’re already short on money in terms of investing – and for what – for 25 bucks?”

Gone are the days of $1.50 gas prices, he said, but in order to reduce gas prices, Obama would “go after oil companies for their windfall profits,” investigate price gouging, and increase fuel efficiency standards.

The candidate of change is going to investigate price gouging by oil companies and go after their profits.

First, this is exactly what Congress has been doing for the past decade. Congress gets together and has a discussion about price gouging, only to discover that oil companies don’t actually control the price of oil because it is a traded commodity. They have never found any way for oil companies to be involved in gouging because it doesn’t happen. This isn’t change, it is more of the same. It is what politicians do when they need to try and win over a public that doesn’t understand that they aren’t accomplishing anything. And I’m sure that Obama gets a nice ovation when he says it too.

Second, Obama either thinks we are all stupid, or he doesn’t know enough about economics to spell the word. When oil prices are high, oil companies use the profits to actually help increase the supply of oil and of other energy sources by doing things like increasing the efficiency of their refineries, searching for more oil, and seeking out alternatives.

Because of this, several things have happened as the prices have increased over the past two decades:

• Refineries have increased their refining capacity without having to open new bases.
• An oil reserve that rivals mid-east reserves has been discovered in South America.
• Oil companies are supplying us with geothermal energy, natural gas energy, and helping in other alternative research.

Contrary to popular liberal belief, oil companies are not trying to ensure that the world is addicted to oil. They are in fact searching out other forms of energy. They are doing this for one very important reason. They want to be the ones who supply us with this alternative energy. Do you know why? Because it increases profits. That’s right, they are greedy. They want money. And if they can give us alternatives, they can make more money.

These are the dirty little secrets that liberal politicians won’t tell you. And yes, you are lucky to have me.