Appearing on CNN, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich bet that oil companies will ruin the economy, getting President Obama out of office. Asked by Candy Crowley why he is so confident of a Republican landslide in the November elections, Gingrich predicted that gasoline prices — already on a rapid rise to the massive benefit of the oil industry — will continue to skyrocket, leading to an economic collapse by August:

The price of gasoline is becoming a genuine crisis for many American families. If it continues to go higher, it will crater the economy by August. Because people will have no discretionary income and as a result, the president’s going to go into the fall with very expensive gasoline, a weakening economy, a disastrously bad policy in the Middle East and a trillion dollar deficit. I think that’s a pretty big burden while he’s waging war on the Catholic Church and apologizing to Islamic extremists. I think that’s a pretty heavy burden for the President of the United States to carry for re-election.

Watch it:

Gasoline prices are rising much faster than oil prices are, because of decisions made by oil companies to increase their profits even as US demand declines. Americans have been shifting to much more fuel-efficient cars from a resurgent American auto industry.

But the oil industry has been shutting down oil refineries, reducing production, and exporting gasoline, putting the squeeze on gasoline prices to ensure continued record profits. Further refinery shutdowns are planned, guaranteeing further gas price spikes in the future. Rampant speculator activity accelerates the flow of wealth from drivers’ pockets at the gas pump to the one percent.

When gas prices go up, Big Oil wins and everyone else loses — except, Newt Gingrich bets, the Republican Party. It would take a conspiracy theorist like Rick Santorum to believe that the oil and Wall Street executives would deliberately hurt the U.S. economy to help Republicans win. But there’s little evidence that given the choice between their own short-term profits and the welfare of the 99 percent, Big Oil would make any sacrifice.

Transcript:

Read more

As international tensions and Wall Street speculation move the national gas price average closer to $4, Republicans have charged that Obama is “intentionally” raising prices. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said the “single biggest obstacle to greater domestic energy production is the Obama administration.”

But, as Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal points out, attacks that claim we’re “not expanding our domestic energy capacity” like Cornyn’s “couldn’t be more misguided.”

With gas price misinformation everywhere, a few facts on oil production stand out:

– Under the Obama administration, domestic energy production is at its highest level in eight years.

– The U.S. has more oil and natural gas drilling rigs than the rest of the world. The number of rigs have exploded in the past three years to 1,272.

– “After declining to levels not seen since the 1940s, U.S. crude production began rising again in 2009,” writes the Houston Chronicle.

– The Energy Department confirmed yesterday that the U.S. exported more oil-product than imported for the first time since 1949.

– The five oil giants benefited from $200 million more profit for every penny rise in quarterly gas prices. Yet the industry still benefits from $40 billion in subsidies.

Clearly, we’re producing more oil:

Strangely, Buzzfeed argues this chart by the Obama administration “demonstrates how to play politics with statistics.” The main reason that our import mix is declining is that production has increased while we move to reduce oil dependence altogether with clean energy investments and new fuel efficiency standards that cut carbon pollution and more than $2.2 million barrels of oil per day.

The surging price of gasoline means that the 99 percent are giving big oil companies a $5 billion windfall, a Center for American Progress analysis estimates. Oil prices, which averaged a near-record $103 per barrel in 2011, have risen steadily since the beginning of 2012. In tandem with oil prices, gasoline prices are also rising — from an average of $3.30 ending the week of January 2 to $3.59 last week.

Higher gas prices mean that money is flowing out of Americans’ wallets and pocketbooks and straight into the coffers of Big Oil companies. A Center for American Progress analysis finds that each penny rise in the average quarterly (three months) price of a gallon of gas corresponds to a $200 million increase in quarterly profits of the big five oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell:

Since the beginning of the year, the price for gasoline increased 29 cents per gallon. If that average increase holds true through the end of March, it will translate to $5.8 billion in additional profits for the big five.

Although those billions of dollars come from the pockets of the 99 percent, the profits stay at the top. The richest 20 percent in this country get half of all market income, with the top one percent getting 21 percent of the profits. With vanishing corporate taxes and a declining share of the gas tax, less and less of the cost of gasoline goes back into societal benefit — like creating jobs by rebuilding our roads and bridges, or investing in energy efficiency and smart growth that reduce our dependence on oil.

Instead of using their outrageous profits to invest in alternative energy sources or create jobs, the big five and other oil and gas firms spent more than $146 million lobbying Congress last year. The big five oil companies alone spent more than $18 million on federal campaign contributions. Ninety percent of these contributions went to Republican candidates and 10 percent to Democrats. Many of these politicians were the loudest defenders of oil tax breaks.

Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), on Fox News Sunday yesterday, echoed comments made last week by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, claiming that rising gas prices were an intentional part of Obama administration policy.

Daniels told Chris Wallace:

Let’s give the president credit for one domestic policy that worked. He wanted higher gas prices and he got ‘em. He said it. Secretary [Steven] Chu said $8, about what they pay in Europe, would be great. Secretary [Ken] Salazar said it could go $10 and [he] still wouldn’t be for allowing drilling in the places where we know there’s an awful lot of domestic production. And so, they have gotten the doubling of gas prices — perhaps worse, is a conscious policy of this administration. Maybe the one thing they set out to do and actually accomplished.”

Watch the exchange:

Daniels did not mention that in 2010, he wanted higher gas prices himself. That year, the Center for American Progress praised Daniels for distinguishing himself from Republican fealty to big oil by supporting a tax on imported oil. The tax would have increased gasoline prices in order to increase American energy security.

Though Wallace noted that U.S. dependence on foreign oil is the lowest in 16 years, Daniels dismissed this as “no thanks to them,” crediting only the policies of the George W. Bush administration and blasting President Barack Obama for wanting “environmental regulations” that could put refiners out of business and stop the construction of new ones.

ThinkProgress researchers were unable to find any evidence that Obama has ever called for higher gas prices, although he did say in one 2008 interview that, given a choice, he would prefer a slow gas price increase to a fast one. The accusations Daniels made about Chu and Salazar involve incidents from before they were members of the administration. Chu talked in September 2008 about a gradual, 15-year increase in the gas tax to encourage efficiency and keep money in America — his idea was rejected by President Obama. Salazar never said what Daniels claimed — as a senator in 2008, Salazar was blocking a procedural gimmick by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who wanted to use gas prices to trigger unrestricted offshore drilling everywhere in the United States. Daniels’ claims totally ignored the administration’s actions and the president’s “all-of-the-above” energy plan to fight gas price spikes and reduce dependence on oil.

Daniels’ concern for only energy and construction companies, instead of the planet, is nothing new. As ThinkProgress Green reported last month, Daniels used his state taxpayer-funding to lobby for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline — even though the proposed pipeline would not run through Indiana. Even the state-paid lobbyist was unable to explain the connection. According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Daniels received about $1.3 million in campaign contributions from the construction sector and more than $900,000 from the energy and natural resources industries over his career.