The U.S. is experiencing a domestic oil boom that could soon make it the world’s largest liquid fuels producer. And how has that surge in production impacted gasoline prices?

In 2012, Americans paid more for gasoline than ever before.

According to figures from AAA, the average price of gasoline in 2012 was $3.60 per gallon, making last year the most expensive in history. Here’s what the organization reported on December 31:

Today’s national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $3.29. While this price is more than 10 cents less than one month ago, it is 4.5 cents more expensive than one week ago and 1.6 cents more than one year ago. The year ended with an annual average of $3.60 per gallon – the highest on record and nine cents more expensive than the previous high of $3.51 in 2011.

In 2012, prices increased to begin the year as geopolitical tension with Iran mounted and the “fear premium” in oil markets propelled the national average price at the pump to a high of $3.94 on April 5 and 6 – more than 65 cents higher than the price to begin the year. While a resolution to the “fiscal cliff” negotiations in Washington could pressure gasoline prices higher to begin 2013, it is unlikely that this increase would be on par with a year ago. Continued economic concerns, weak demand and increased domestic crude oil production are likely to temper any seasonal price increase in the coming months.

High gas prices caused a fever pitch in political circles. The 2012 campaign season was filled with calls for a “drill-everywhere-drill-anything” approach to energy policy. During the February primary season, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich released a plan to increase drilling and shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, which he claimed would lower gas prices to $2.50 per gallon. Analysts called it “absurd.”

During the general election, Mitt Romney unveiled an energy plan to “drill everywhere it can be done.” While Romney didn’t make any specific claims about how much it would lower prices at the pump, he did claim his plan would substantially lower prices for consumers.

However, while Romney and others made bold claims about how much their drilling plans would reduce gasoline prices, the opposite scenario played out: American oil production surged to historic highs; yet the average price of gasoline hovered at record levels for consumers. The year closed out as the most expensive ever for gasoline.

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by Daniel J. Weiss

During the first presidential debate, Gov. Mitt Romney was caught making misleading, incorrect, and flat out wrong statements.  FactCheck.org concluded that “Romney often stretched the facts” during the debate. The New York Times Editorial Page Editor’s Blog noted that “Various truth squads have identified at least two dozen factual misstatements by Mitt Romney in 38 minutes of debate time on Wednesday night.”

The myriad of misstatements in the first debate was not a unique incident, but is a frequent occurrence.  The Romney campaign repeatedly dissembles on gasoline prices and other energy issues. Its latest blizzard of energy untruths were released this week in a memo to reporters.

Here are the facts about gasoline and other energy issues by the numbers.

Prices

• None: The Associated Press found “no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump” after examining 30 years of data (see chart below).

• $4 per gallon: “The average [gasoline price] exceeded $4 a gallon for seven weeks during the summer of 2008, and it has never reached $4 under Obama” according to USA Today.

• 71 cents per gallon: increase in gasoline price since Speaker of the House John Boehner was sworn in.

• $23.39: added to the price per barrel of oil by “Speculation in Crude Oil” according to Forbes magazine.

• 8 percent: cut in Commodities Future Trading Commission staff under House passed budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The CFTC polices oil markets to prevent Wall Street speculators from driving up prices.

Domestic oil production

• 11 percent: increase in U.S. oil production between 2011 and 2012.

• 41 percent: of U.S. oil imported in 2012.

• 75 percent: increase in domestic oil rigs between 2009 and 2011.

• 1993: last time the U.S. achieved projected 2013 domestic crude oil production of 6.9 million barrels per day.

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American crude oil production is at its highest level since 1997, according to government figures reported today. The increase is being driven by innovations in hydraulic fracturing, which have allowed producers to access previously inaccessible oil deposits in shale formations.

This development is likely to be trumpeted by fossil fuel proponents as: a) the key to cheap gasoline prices; and b) a shining example of the free market working when government gets out of the way.

Don’t believe the hype.

Firstly, gas prices are still high, even with all this new crude output. Secondly, these hydraulic fracturing techniques driving the production boom didn’t just magically appear out of the free market — they were pioneered through many decades of government tax credits, loans, R&D programs, and mapping tools.

In other words, the two major talking points pushed by the fossil fuel industry (“cheap energy forever! Just let the free market decide!”) are proving to be vastly overblown.

Here’s the news on domestic production increases from Bloomberg:

Crude output rose by 3.7 percent to 6.509 million barrels a day in the week ended Sept. 21, the Energy Department reported today. America met 83 percent of its energy needs in the first six months of the year, department data show. If the trend continues through 2012, it will be the highest level of self- sufficiency since 1991. Imports have declined 3.2 percent from the same period a year earlier.

A combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has helped reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil. The same technology unleashed a boom in natural gas output from shale that pushed inventories to a record last year.

So domestic oil production is higher than when George W. Bush was ever in office. What has that done to gasoline prices? They’re still hovering at historic highs:

As a recent analysis from the Associated Press showed, there’s simply no correlation between increasing domestic oil production and falling gasoline prices. In March, AP took 36 years of Energy Information Administration production data and matched it with gas prices in the U.S. Here’s what they found:

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With gas prices rising over the Labor Day weekend, Republicans have resumed political attacks and proposed policies that do not help consumers with costs.

As expected, Republicans have renewed calls to fulfill the oil industry’s wishlist by increasing drilling on public lands, building the Keystone XL pipeline, and maintain billions of dollars in tax breaks for mature, highly-profitable companies.

National gas prices reached $3.83 on Monday, the highest ever on Labor Day. Reasons for the short-term 9.4 percent jump in prices this August include refinery closures from Hurricane Isaac and a major fire at a Chevron California refinery earlier in the month. Of course, Republicans are now pointing fingers at Obama for rising gas prices — and the National Republican Congressional Committee jumped on the bandwagon this weekend with a press release touting the Keystone XL pipeline and blaming the president for the jump.

This came after Romney unveiled an energy plan focused exclusively on oil, with a false promise to end gas price shocks.

Despite GOP wishes, oil prices cannot be pinned on the president. Instead, Republicans use gas price pain to push canned “solutions” that benefit big oil and not consumers. Consider these proposals:

– The Keystone XL pipeline could cause gas prices to rise: The Keystone XL pipeline would move dirty Canadian tar sands oil across America for export. It will not improve U.S. oil production. Since it will ship oil past Midwestern refineries toward the Gulf, Bloomberg estimates that it would cause gas prices to increase for some Americans.

– Boosting domestic oil production doesn’t prevent gas price shocks: According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis this spring, increased oil production wouldn’t insulate consumers from jumps in prices. Domestic production is already at an eight-year high, and CBO reports that even if prices did drop, it would make consumers “more vulnerable to increases in oil prices. Even if the United States increased production and became a net exporter of oil, U.S. consumers would still be exposed to gasoline prices that rose and fell in response to disruptions around the world.” The only way to protect consumers, argues CBO, is to use less oil.

– Fuel efficiency standards help both the auto industry and consumers: Higher gas prices usually mean fewer auto sales, but auto sales have been strong this summer largely because of production of fuel efficient cars. The Obama administration recently finalized higher fuel standards that raise the efficiency of the nation’s auto fleet to 54.5 mpg by 2025. Mitt Romney opposes these standards, and wants to undo existing ones. The 54.5 mpg target will cut U.S. oil dependency by 3 million barrels a day, save consumers $1.7 trillion over the next decade, and reduce the impact of rising prices.

ThinkProgress has documented how critics didn’t thank Obama when gas prices unexpectedly dropped this summer. Now, taking advantage of the higher prices, Republicans are again blaming the President — all while advocating policies that do little to actually solve the problem.

Experts predict average gas prices may fall below $3 this fall after dropping 14 cents in two weeks. When prices hit a record high, Republicans attributed sole responsibility to President Obama, even though there is no evidence that factors like drilling impact what consumers pay.

Just two months ago, Republicans said Obama shouldered the blame for rising gas costs, and that only he had the “key” to lower gas prices:

Mitt Romney, March 18, 2012: “He gets full credit or blame for what’s happened in this economy, and what’s happened to gasoline prices under his watch, and what’s happened to our schools, and what’s happened to our military forces. All these things are his responsibility while he’s president.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), April 6, 2012: “The president holds the key to addressing the pain Ohioans are feeling at the gas pump and moving our nation away from its reliance on foreign energy. My question for the president is: what are you waiting for?”

Boehner, April 6, 2012: “The president’s own policies to date have made matters worse and driven up gas prices.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Feb. 28 2012: “This President will go to any length to drive up gas prices and pave the way for his ideological agenda.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), March 13, 2012: Obama is “fully responsible for what the American public is paying for gasoline.”

Are Republicans now reversing their rhetoric and giving Obama credit for falling gas prices? Of course not.

Former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who is running to reclaim his old seat, is another lawmaker who has misled on the gas prices. Last month, ThinkProgress reported that Allen is pushing a graphic that not only compares gas prices to an artificially low amount, but lists a “current” price from April, even though Virginia gas prices are now more than 40 cents lower per gallon.

Obama’s policies haven’t changed since April: the Keystone XL pipeline has not been built, drilling hasn’t drastically changed, and the same regulations are in place. Yet gas prices have fallen. Economics says he isn’t responsible, either way.

More than 100 Lung Association staff members, volunteers, doctors, nurses and clean air advocates from 34 states across the country unfurled a giant Red Carriage banner on the Capitol steps, drawing attention to the devastating impact of air pollution on the health of children, in addition to sitting in on 150 meetings with key members of Congress. The Lung Association Red Carriage campaign has defended Clean Air Act rules designed to fight greenhouse pollution, smog, and toxic mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The day of action also falls on the same day the House Energy and Power Subcommittee held a hearing on the GOP’s Gasoline Regulations Act of 2012, which would eliminate life-saving clean air protections that reduce toxic pollution in our air and make cars more fuel-efficient.

A recent Lung Association poll found that two-thirds of American voters support stricter EPA standards on pollution.