Argumentative Essay - Rising Gas Prices: Who Is to Blame?
Argumentative Essay
18 March 2012
Rising Gas Prices: Who is to blame? Each time a person residing in the United States pulls up to a gas station to fill their tank it costs more money. This is particularly true of the past four years. Many focus the blame on the American Government but there are a multitude of factors causing gasoline prices to be so astronomically high. Middle eastern war, environmental precautions and government all seem to have a hand in the price we pay at the pump. While Obama is campaigning for the upcoming presidential election, many citizens have voiced their opposition to re-electing him into office. The economy’s downward spiral over the last four years has affected his loss of votes and now the skyrocketing prices consumers are paying at the pump is making it even worse. Seemingly through newspapers and online articles the gas prices are largely being blamed on the lack of government regulation. This could be partly true although there are many factors determining the gas price changes. Consumers have noted that the government should be drilling into our own soil and producing gasoline without importing from other countries thus saving money and lowering gas prices. Dan Pfeiffer of The Whitehouse has reported that we are indeed drilling for oil in the Unites States although not as much as we could. Pfeiffer states that Americans use about twenty percent of the entire amount of oil produced each year and if we tapped into every square inch of land available in the United States we could only produce about two percent of the demand. Therefore, the US will need to always import even if we did drill for oil more in our own country than we do today. But is there another way we could not import and still use our own oil resources? The answer is yes but not an available factor as of this year (Pfeiffer). Plans are moving forward yet slowly to build a pipeline to transport synthetic crude oil from Canada through the US to gain access
18 March 2012
Rising Gas Prices: Who is to blame? Each time a person residing in the United States pulls up to a gas station to fill their tank it costs more money. This is particularly true of the past four years. Many focus the blame on the American Government but there are a multitude of factors causing gasoline prices to be so astronomically high. Middle eastern war, environmental precautions and government all seem to have a hand in the price we pay at the pump. While Obama is campaigning for the upcoming presidential election, many citizens have voiced their opposition to re-electing him into office. The economy’s downward spiral over the last four years has affected his loss of votes and now the skyrocketing prices consumers are paying at the pump is making it even worse. Seemingly through newspapers and online articles the gas prices are largely being blamed on the lack of government regulation. This could be partly true although there are many factors determining the gas price changes. Consumers have noted that the government should be drilling into our own soil and producing gasoline without importing from other countries thus saving money and lowering gas prices. Dan Pfeiffer of The Whitehouse has reported that we are indeed drilling for oil in the Unites States although not as much as we could. Pfeiffer states that Americans use about twenty percent of the entire amount of oil produced each year and if we tapped into every square inch of land available in the United States we could only produce about two percent of the demand. Therefore, the US will need to always import even if we did drill for oil more in our own country than we do today. But is there another way we could not import and still use our own oil resources? The answer is yes but not an available factor as of this year (Pfeiffer). Plans are moving forward yet slowly to build a pipeline to transport synthetic crude oil from Canada through the US to gain access
Cited: Yergin, Daniel. “What’s behind rising gas prices?” The Wallstreet Journal. New York Times, 16 Mar. 2012. Web. Mar. 15 2012. Pfeiffer, Dan. “Fact Check: All-of-the-Above Approach to American Energy.” The Whitehouse Washington. N.p., 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. Amadeo, Kimberly. “Why are gas prices so high?” About.com guide. New York Times Company, 10 Mar. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. Davenport, Coral. “Oil Pipeline Presents Dilemma for Obama.” National Journal. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. (2011) Web. 16 Mar. 2012. Degenhardt, Rachel. “1700 miles of the Keystone XL Pipeline.” ENHESA Flash 1.61 (2011): 5. Unites States Department of State. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.