As we explore issues relating to gas and oil prices, on a daily basis, we feel it is necessary to look to America’s future and where the Presidential Candidates stand on these very crucial issues. Let’s take a look at the oil related issues (therefore impacting gas prices), where they clash, and where there is cause for concern.  First up in this post, Obama’s oil and gas proposed policies…

• Obama wants to invest over 150 billion dollars over a 10 year period specifically for “…biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy…”
  
• Obama wants to introduce Cellulosic Ethanol into our fuel consumption plan by 2013. (Cellulosic Ethanol is a biofuel made from grass, wood, and certain parts of plants).
  
• Obama wants to expand locally owned Biofuel refineries.
  
• Obama wants to increase the renewable fuel standard to 36 billion gallons by 2022 . (This simply means that more alternative fuels will be introduced into the fuel supply for consumption)

How will these policies work? While Obama’s plan is very specific, how feasible are these ideas though? Let me shed some light…

• First, with the increase and production of ethanol-based fuels, how much will it really offset our gasoline demand?  America currently uses over 130 billion gallons of gasoline and only produces slightly over 5 billion gallons of ethanol.  Unless we really increase the production of ethanol, we will only offset our gasoline dependency by 5-7%.  It also doesn’t take an economics major to figure out that when there is an increase in demand for corn and ethanol, the price goes up, affecting grocery and restaurant bills.
  
• Second, How much land do we need to set aside to generate this increase in ethanol product and how does the increase of pesticides?  It’s easy to understand that the increase of pesticides will hurt the environment, but where will this land come from?  Most farmable soil is designated to America’s other cash crops like soy, wheat, barley, tobacco, and cotton.  Do we decrease the production of these other crops to increase corn production?

As you can see there is no easy answer to decrease America’s dependency on oil, it will take a huge collective effort by the Congress and President to determine these oil initiatives.  In the next couple of days we will take a look at the oil and natural gas policies of Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain.  How do you feel about Obama’s policies?

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