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The federal government should take a comprehensive approach to bringing down gas prices – including negotiating with OPEC leaders and acting on Senator Joe Lieberman’s suggestion to loan U.S. oil reserves to American companies to refine and put back into the domestic market, which will increase supply to meet demand and let the market work to lower prices. The United States threatened a similar step during the Persian Gulf War, not to get oil to our troops but to bring down rising prices. The mere threat that such a large consumer body as the United States would turn to other means was enough for the OPEC countries to increase their production to reasonable levels. Furthermore, the Department of Energy conducts sales and swaps from the reserves every day. Cutting federal gas taxes, which are largely earmarked for federal road funds, is too drastic a reaction to high gas prices that would have unpredictable long-term results. |
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