Rising gas prices are quickly becoming the central issue in the Republican presidential race. Today at the Gulf Coast Energy Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi, Newt Gingrich promised that he would be able to bring gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon by increasing domestic production. “That’s just not possible,” Jennifer Granholm says, citing Wall Street Journal Columnist Rex Nutting. “Mr. Gingrich ignores the basic facts about U.S. gas prices,” Nutting wrote. “They are largely determined by global market forces… it is hard to see how Mr. Obama’s policies can be blamed.”
Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress and Daniel Kammen, Director of Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory UC Berkeley joined Jennifer Granholm to talk about what drives the price spikes in gasoline. “It’s a whole set of petropolitics we’ve got to talk about,” Kammen says.
“Newt Gingrich might as well promise to build a ranch for unicorns or a daycare center for leprechauns,” Weiss, says. “He’s just as likely to succeed at that as he will at $2.50 a gallon gasoline.”
