The Blog Formerly Known As Vote '08

Click here to read an article Obama wrote in 2006 about the future of gas-powered vehicles.

Above: gas station lines near the Wal-Mart on Keith Street, Cleveland, Tennessee. Photo by Sarah Jennings.

Goodness gracious did we ever see a panic yesterday.

I happened to be producing NewsChannel9’s 6pm newscast, & hadn’t planned on doing the story at all.. until about 3:30-4pm, when the calls started coming in. All were along the lines of

“Hey, have you heard that gas prices are gonna shoot up $1.50 overnight? I’m getting gas & sitting in a line & wanted to make sure you knew about it.”

As you know by now, this was fueled (heh) by the potential for Hurricane Ike to cause major damage off the Texas coastline. Ike forced several oil rigs there to send its employees packing, reducing the supply of oil out of that region to a drip. The Chattanooga area & the southeast gets a good chunk of that oil. Thus.. the rumors started flying about “just how high it’ll go.”

I’ll admit - there was considerable debate in the newsroom about how to handle this story.

On the one hand, there was considerable interest in this story. People were calling us, turning on our newscast, & going to the web to get as much information as they could about the story.

On the other hand, though, there was the “you’ll throw gas on a fire” argument. That doing the story would only send more people to line up at the pump & deplete an already almost-tapped-out supply.

(these two schools of thought I’d say split the newsroom down the middle).

We ultimately did the story at 6pm. & when the live shot was posted to the web, you made it our most-viewed video in record time - just 4 hours.

But what happened then?

I drove to work this morning & passed 5 gas stations, who were all tapped out.

The price of gas didn’t in fact go up $1.50, but rather about 15 cents. So the rumors were 90% inaccurate.

& from what we’re reading .. apparently the Tennessee Valley the only region in the southeast that behaved this way.

& Ike hasn’t even hit.

The thing I was telling the plethora of callers was this: just because the price of gas may go up.. doesn’t necessarily mean that it will stay up. If you’re hovering around “E,” then you had best fillerup. But if you can afford to wait a few days.. you’ll probably see prices stabilize. The empirical evidence I viewed this morning (gas at $3.65, up from $3.54 the day before) helped prove my point.

Above all, next time: don’t panic.

Interesting piece on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning about oil drilling in Tennessee.

There are a lot of forgotten oil wells that are getting a new look these days with high gas prices.

Trouble is, even though the output is minimal by, say, Texas’ standards, the oil that’s already been drilled is just sitting in the tank!

Click here to read the story. It’s an interesting one, that I told my news director I hope we do soon, even though it’s out of the viewing area.

Obama was asked by a voter what he personally could do to help reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil.

Here’s his response:

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The right was quick to ridicule the remark. Listen to Sean Hannity:

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..& Newt Gingrich:

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…& John McCain:

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The McCain campaign even made up phony tire gauges with Obama’s name on it.

But Hannity & Gingrich (& the rest) are willfully distorting the original context of what Obama said. Obama did not say this was “the solution” that gets us to energy dependency. He was offering advice on what you, the American individual, can do to help the nation.

He was decidedly not saying “all you need to do” is inflate your ties, or “my entire energy policy” is inflating your tires.

He’s not the only one saying this, by the way:

“You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.4 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires. Properly inflated tires are safer and last longer.” - The U.S. Department of Energy (click on the link for plenty more suggestions)

& while we’re quoting the government, here’s what the Energy Information Agency projects will be the impact (& when we can start seeing it) from offshore drilling in the lower 48 states:

So it’s frustrating that it seems that some on the right think it’s more important to use juvenile forms of ridicule rather than recognizing what Obama & the U.S. Government does: we all need to do our part. Filling your tires properly is how you yourself can have an impact on this problem. It’s not the whole solution, and it’s disingenuous for anyone to paint it as such.

It reminds me how far we’ve come since the days we all rallied around a common cause:

FURTHER READING: “The Tire-Gauge Solution: No Joke” in Time Magazine puts it perfectly:

“But who’s really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.”

&

“It might not fit the worldviews of right-wingers who deny the existence of global warming and insist that reducing emissions would destroy our economy, or of left-wing Earth-firsters who insist that maintaining our creature comforts would destroy the world, but there’s a lot of simple things we can do on the demand side before we start rushing to ratchet up supply.

We can use those twisty carbon fluorescent lightbulbs. We can unplug our televisions, computers and phone chargers when we’re not using them. We can seal our windows, install more insulation and adjust our thermostats so that we waste less heat and air-conditioning. We can use more-efficient appliances, build more-efficient homes and drive more-efficient cars, preferably with government assistance. And, yes, we can inflate our tires and tune our engines, as Republican governors Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Charlie Crist of Florida have urged, apparently without consulting the RNC. While we’re at it, we can cut down on idling, which can improve fuel economy another 5%, and cut down on speeding and unnecessary acceleration, which can increase mileage as much as 20%.“

If nothing else convinces you why you should take these steps, think of all the money you’d save.

Bob Corker, whom we’ve seen pumping his own gas at the nearest station to our home, by the way, has rightly slammed this silly gas tax holiday proposal.

From Nashville’s “City Paper” Blog:

“I think all of us realize this is solely pandering,” Corker said of suspending the gas tax over the summer.

Corker pointed out that both Clinton and McCain are in favor of so-called “cap and trade” legislation coming up for debate next month in the Senate — legislation that Corker says, “actually is a tax on gasoline.”

“So again, if that’s not pandering, I don’t know what it is,” Corker told reporters. “It’s very disappointing to see. I think as a country we need to have a real energy policy that ensures that Americans are going to be able to have access to petroleum at fair prices over time and that we’re not transferring this huge amount of wealth overseas that we’re doing every day.”

When asked if he was disappointed in McCain’s proposing of the idea, Corker said: “I watch what happens during election years, and nothing surprises me.”

Good call, Senator.

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Above: a last-minute negative ad from Clinton attacking Obama’s refusal to pander to voters with this ‘gas-tax holiday’ nonsense.

Below: I’m not sure who produced this ad, but it repeats a Clinton soundbite from yesterday’s “This Week” that caused our jaw to drop.

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“..not gonna put my lot in with economists”??? Excuse me?

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Clinton lambasts Obama for not supporting a suspension of the gas tax.

Obama responds with an ad of his own:

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Both the New York Times & the Washington Post have editorials calling out this pandering flim-flammery for what it is.

The two candidates pictured above both have recently called for a suspension of the federal gas tax between this Memorial Day & Labor Day, & have both blasted Barack Obama, who opposes it.

No one likes high gas prices. But pandering to the base, immediate needs of the voters represents a “quick fix” style solution designed to get votes rather than address a long-term problem.

Each of the three candidates have promised to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Here’s Barack Obama’s plan

Here’s Hillary Clinton’s plan

Here’s John McCain’s plan

Each of these arguments have merits. For starters, each represent a break from the current system which is running on inertia. & look where that’s gotten us.

There are two ways to approach fixing the gas price problem: reducing demand, & increasing supply.

Dropping the federal gas tax for this summer would do neither of these; it would increase demand - presumably because the price would be better - & decrease supply, as more people use gas.

& it really wouldn’t make that much of an impact in your wallet, anyway, as this clip from Good Morning America illustrates:

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Thomas Friedman of the New York Times fleshes out that point in his column today.

& lest you think that opposition to the idea sticks with just one ideology, check out the wealth of economists - including a former economic adviser to President Bush - who say it’s a cheap gimmick designed to get votes.

Personally I’m more than happy to pay the tax - provided that tax is going towards figuring out a long-term solution to the problem. I am tired & extremely frustrated at politicians in Washington - of both parties - refusing to look beyond the next week, the next month, the next year, or, most importantly, the next election.

This 2008 presidential campaign, as we’ve said before, is not an easy one. It’s awfully hard. You as a voter have a responsibility to look past your immediate concerns & try to envision how to plan for 20, 30, 50 years down the road. Changing how we view our dependence on foreign oil is just one part of this.

So we urge you to reject any politician’s plan to give you a “quick fix” in the short term while ignoring the long term issues that are at stake for our economic (& literal) survival.

What do you think?

Still feeling hungry after Super Tuesday’s feast of primaries?

Washington, Louisiana, Nebraska & Maine all hold Presidential contests this weekend.

After the jump, we’ll take a look at which candidates voters in these states have an appetite for.

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