WASHINGTON -- Gasoline prices have not gotten much attention amid all the other bad economic news for Democrats heading into a final week of campaigning, according to a report in The Washington Times, but the price per gallon has climbed nearly 15 cents since Labor Day--a surprising jump, given that prices usually plummet before an election, it said.
The cost of a gallon of gasoline has eclipsed the $3 mark in several parts of the country and clocks in nationally at $2.82, said the report, citing the Energy Information Administration (EIA). That is up from $2.68 [image-nocss] on September 6, and overall about $1 higher than the week of January 26, 2009, when President Barack Obama took office and the per-gallon price was $1.81.
Analysts say the surge in pump prices defies historical trends that call for a dropoff after the Labor Day holiday, which signals the end of the summer driving season and the traditional dip ahead of the November election season.
"We're puzzled by it," John B. Townsend II, a spokesperson for AAA Mid-Atlantic, told the newspaper. "It's becoming increasingly expensive, and the great anomaly is that never happens before an election--prices always fall."
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Some 56% of Americans say gasoline prices are "extremely important," according to a mid-October Associated Press-GfK poll that also found 29% rated prices at the pump as "moderately important," while 15% said they are of little or no importance. Americans are split in their assessment of how the President is handling gasoline prices, with 49% approving and 49% disapproving of his performance, that same survey found. Among likely voters, just 46% approve of his track record on gasoline prices and 51% disapprove.
That could be because voters are used to pre-election price drops, said the report.
In 2008, prices plummeted nearly 80 cents between Labor Day and the week of October 20, and in 2006, they fell by about 50 cents over the same period. In 2007 and 2009, by contrast, prices held about steady.
It is not clear, said the Posti, whether the Obama administration is considering any short-term fixes to rising gasoline prices. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages federal lands that would be leased for oil exploration, told the newspaper that question is not under the purview of the agency, and an U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) spokesperson referred the Post's questions to the EPA, which did not return a message seeking comment.
President George W. Bush faced strong criticism and anemic approval ratings on his handling of the situation as gasoline prices eclipsed the $3 mark, reaching $4 in June 2008 before he and Congress lifted moratoriums on expanding offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, said the report. Supporters said lifting presidential and congressional moratoriums sent a signal to markets that in turn led to a sharp decline in prices.
Free-market critics of Obama's energy policies say it is only a matter of time before consumers start to feel the pinch, reported the paper.
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