President can’t control gas prices

Fence Post writer Jack McCabe of Batavia states that President Obama is avoiding the reason for increasing gas prices, which is due a lower U.S. debt rating. He also mentions briefly that under the Bush administration oil reached it’s highest price per barrel at $145.91 — his information, not mine.

If this is true, wouldn’t the policies of the Bush administration for eight years have had a direct cause on the price per barrel at that time? Or is that the world market and OPEC sets the price of oil? There is also the fact that day traders and speculators add $15 to the typical fill-up at the pump.

No president, Republican or Democrat or Independent, can set or control the price of a barrel of oil. We could put an oil well on everybody’s front lawn, and the prices would still be set by the market and OPEC.

Bob McArdle

Hampshire