NPR's Totenberg Defends Obama From Rising Gas Prices: 'Politicians Don't Control This'

As NewsBusters has been reporting, America's media currently feel it's their job to make sure soaring gas prices don't negatively impact Barack Obama's chances of reelection.

NPR's Nina Totenberg did her part on Friday's Inside Washington saying, "Politicians don't control this" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

GORDON PETERSON, HOST: It’s also a fact that gasoline prices are skyrocketing as we sit here. Let's say gasoline hits say $5 by Election Day. What are the president's chances of reelection?

NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: Well, you know, gasoline prices do affect, they take, they are like a big tax in that they take money out of people's pockets, particularly at the lower income levels when they have to get to work, for example. However, let us say, and I think we have seen enough of this for the last 20 years that people have some sense that that politicians don't control this.

I mean, there was a study recently that showed if the United States actually was accountable for all, made all of its own gas, all of it was pumped in the United States, it still would only reduce the price of gas internationally and to us at about a few cents a gallon because it’s we don't, we don’t produce all the gas in the world, all the petrol in the world.

It really is amazing that someone so ignorant not only has a platform to speak such gibberish on radio but also gets invited on one of America's oldest political television talk shows once a week to further misinform the public.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. was a net importer of 9.4 million barrels of oil a day in 2010. The entire global production of oil that year was 82 million barrels per day.

If America produced an additional 9.4 million thereby becoming self-sufficient, that would be an increase of 11 percent internationally and would have a huge impact on prices.

Sadly, folks like Totenberg have been making this silly argument for decades: more American production won't solve the immediate problem.

Imagine for a moment drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge had been approved twenty years ago. How much would all of that additional oil be impacting prices right now?

In Totenberg's warped view, apparently not at all.

As such, it seems her goal is to not only shield the president from gas price criticism but also to  further the argument that additional domestic oil production isn't warranted because it won't help.

Pretty scary when you think about it.

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