Arab Revolution + Japan disaster = higher oil prices

A couple of weeks ago on facebook Media Matters posted something about media blaming Obama for higher oil prices. A few commenters on that post said Obama "wanted" oil prices to rise. Apparently these commenters were arguing that Obama (as Senator) said that cap and trade would result in higher energy costs. He was right, of course. Obama predicted that putting limits on greenhouse gas emissions would cause the price of energy to rise. This doesn't mean he wanted prices to raise.

Even without regulations and taxes, one could predict that oil prices will rise, given the turmoil in the middle east. This is why oil prices have already risen. Speculators have been betting that prices of oil will rise at rates higher than inflation - those are the people who want prices to rise, not Obama. The nuclear power disaster in Japan only adds to the pressure on fossil fuels, no doubt. The US government has has handed out dozens of permits to oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, even though safety has not really improved since the Deepwater Horizon blowout, as Rachel Maddow explains below.

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