FACT UPFRONT
Gas prices were lower than today’s prices several times in the past decade.
Amid the mania of Trump tweeting, this one passed millions of computer screens on the 4th of July
Oh, the pain …
There is an old adage: a lie goes halfway around the world before the truth gets out of bed.
It is painful trying to chase down and refute deceit — far more hear and absorb the deceit than ever hear the truthful refutation.
And, when the deceiver occupies the Oval Office and has the megaphone of a (bot-heavy) massive Twitter account …
Was about to chase down some truth in the vigil of chasing that lie halfway around the world when this one crossed my tweet stream:
Thank you, Richard Hine, for saving me the time to track down the data.
Some points from the Energy Information Administration data about gas prices across the nation.
- Feb 2016: $1.78 per gallon
- Dec 2008: $1.72 per gallon
- June 2017: $2.37 per gallon
Hmm … Donald tweets … and Donald tweets falsehoods — easily refuted falsehoods. What a surprise …
Sadly, we can expect the #MAGA minions to fall in line and cheer this distortion. (Reading comments to Trump’s thread is painful ...) I’m waiting with baited breath for the Fox News segments showing how Trump has delivered the lowest gas prices since the Fall of Rome …
My aside thought recalls the (apocryphal) story about George HW Bush and the grocery store scanner.
Anyone want to bet the last time Donald Trump pumped his own gas?
Wednesday, Jul 5, 2017 · 5:42:08 AM +00:00 · A Siegel
Forgot to have in the original post … a few weeks ago I saw a story that I was tempted to write about Trump Blamed For Slumping Gasoline Demand As Illegal Immigrants Stay Home. The hypothesis short, due to fears about being seized and deported, many undocumented immigrants (and even ones with papers) have dramatically reduced their driving — perhaps enough to have depressed the gasoline markets. Honestly, this seems a bit of a stretch in terms of total miles driven in the nation but this is, if you go to the link, the only year in the past 13 in which gasoline prices have declined between March and June (rather than increase in double-digit percentage as the summer peak demand approaches).
Wednesday, Jul 5, 2017 · 10:28:38 AM +00:00 · A Siegel
Lets be clear, celebrating “low gas prices” is a mistake. The price at the pump does not represent the real costs of using gasoline. And, ‘cheap’ gas prices are fostering a McSUV heavy purchasing pattern among US drivers.
Please see my recent discussion You commute costs me too much which included this:
While gasoline might only cost a few dollars per gallon at the pump, in the United States, a true accounting of all the costs (from providing security to oil movements to land impacts to health to …) typically puts the true per cost to society anywhere from $8 to >$15 gallon.
Between the CAFE standards and introduction of EVs and changed patterns and …, there are paths toward reducing US (and global) oil demand. The price, however, does not reflect true costs — and unless / until it does so, the market is fostering more polluting options and less economically (for all society) optimal ones.
By the way, I have been having too many McSUV gas-guzzling ‘promoted’ tweets in my timeline. And, well, I’m responding appropriately (at least at times) with things like: