In 2008, oil prices rose because the world believed was running short on oil. In 2012, we’re seeing a similar trend, but because of politics and wars in some of the areas that produce the most oil: Iran, Syria, Yemen, and South Sudan.
This strain on the export of foreign oil has made the market tight worldwide. Global and U.S.prices have risen 20 percent since mid-December, and the Oil Price Information Service said domestic prices could jump to $4.25 by late April.
“I just get angry whenever I have to fill up,” said senior marketing major Chase Winpigler. As an off-campus student who drives to his internship in Owings Mills, Md., Winpigler drives 100 miles on a round trip. “When I started driving, it cost $20 to fill up my tank. It’s doubled since then.”
While total consumer spending in February was up 1.1 percent compared to last fall, other students are feeling more of the burden of high gas prices.
“I need gas to go places, so I essentially have to go to less places,” said Dan Meadows, a junior cell biology and genetics major. “It limits my activity, for the most part, to what is absolutely necessary.” Meadows, who lives about a ten minute drive off campus, says he also had to give up eating out at restaurants and going places over the weekend to pay for gas.
Republicans have railed the Obama administration for the rise in prices, saying that with a new president, prices will drop significantly. They also said that Obama has not done enough to promote domestic drilling, despite the fact that the U.S.drilling-rig count is twice as high now it was in 2009. A White House press release on March 12 stated that foreign oil imports have dropped 10 percent, from 57 to 47 percent, in the last year.
Both Winpigler and Meadows agreed that much of what Republicans were saying was solely based on the upcoming election. To Winpigler, it’s “political nonsense.”