In your March 24 editorial, your editorial board maintained that “presidents can’t control what you pay at the pump.” You also maintained that “oil is very mobile” and that “it’s also a global commodity controlled by private companies intent on making profits.” The result? “Your oil dealer and local gas station supplier must outbid competing bidders from around the world.”

The editorial describes oil prices as subject to the supply and demand pressures of a genuinely free, international market. Somehow, you expect the reader to come to the conclusion that controlling gas prices in such a free market lies beyond the president’s ability.

The president’s decisions help set international oil prices. The president has made every move possible to limit the nation’s access to domestic gas and oil. From decreasing drilling on federal land to hobbling Gulf oil operations, President Barack Obama decreases domestic production. He shut down the Keystone Pipeline and passively let East Coast refineries close for lack of affordable crude. Energy Secretary Steven Chu declared his interest in European-level gas prices as market support for high-priced green energy replacements for oil.

In the genuinely free international market your editorial describes, increasing the world’s supply by increasing this nation’s contribution to that supply works to satisfy rising demand. Such action gives bidders a stronger hand and the public lower prices.

Merely announcing the nation’s intentions to expedite drilling and exploration immediately affects the futures market and lowers prices at the pump.

A new Republican president will dramatically affect pump prices with such actions.

Lenny Hoy, Greenwood

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