White House Says Oil Companies Profit from High Gas Prices

According to an infographic provided by the White House, increased production doesn't lower gas prices and prices will continue to rise even as more drilling takes place. The White House also asserted oil companies profit from the high gas prices. Here is more information from the release.

* The production of oil on federal lands has risen during the first three years of the Obama administration, the White House stated, with more than 2 billion barrels of crude oil produced in 2011.

* In 2011, the U.S. also saw its second best year of the decade in natural gas production on public lands, with 2.97 trillion cubic feet.

* The biggest factor in determining the price of gasoline is the cost of crude oil. According to the Obama administration, increasing global demand and instability have caused high gas prices. China has tripled its number of cars and the gas it takes to run them in the past four years. The number of cars in the U.S. has grown by 10 percent during that time. Instability causing gas prices to spike in recent years include the global financial crisis and the Arab Spring.

* The White House asserts that as the price at the pump increases, so do the yearly profits for the top three oil companies. The graphic shows gas prices hovering near $3.60 a gallon at the end of 2011 and the profits for the top three oil companies at more than $80 billion.

* At an early March speech in Nashua, N.H., President Barack Obama said the U.S. consumes more than 20 percent of the world's oil but only has 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. According to the White House infographic, Saudi Arabia leads the world in proved oil reserves, with 262.6 billion barrels. The U.S. has 20.7 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-says-oil-companies-profit-high-gas-184300999.html

blake griffin cinnamon challenge lou dobbs rock salt david letterman marco rubio marco rubio