Donald Trump was elected president of the United States just ten days ago, and Fox News is already baselessly giving him credit for lowering gas prices.
On the November 17 edition of Fox News’ America’s News Headquarters, Fox Business reporter Jeff Flock reported that gas prices started to fall in early November, as Wall Street speculators began to doubt that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would reach an agreement to cap its production of oil, which would have driven up prices. But Flock then asserted that another reason gas prices have fallen is “the election of Donald Trump,” adding, “The general consensus is [Trump’s victory] is going to be positive for oil exploration, so that tends to drive prices down, too. Another 2.6 percent [drop] since Election Day.”
Gas prices have actually been falling since June and are a little more than half of what they were in the spring of 2014, according to data from GasBuddy.com. And according to GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Gregg Laskoski, gas prices are currently dropping “based on market fundamentals, not politics”:
“While it’s less than a week after the biggest upset in U.S. election history energy industry experts are already speculating on what steps a Trump Administration might enact first; whether the earliest initiatives might eliminate regulations or perhaps look to increase domestic oil and gas production,” said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. “The Keystone XL Pipeline, for instance, is expected to find itself in a more favorable environment for approval but it remains debatable whether such a development would directly benefit U.S. consumers,” he noted.
“Over the next few weeks expect prices at the pump to move lower based on market fundamentals, not politics,” says Laskoski. “Inventories remain healthy and wholesale gasoline prices across the U.S. today, on average, are more than 10 cents per gallon lower than where they stood just a week ago.”
What impact, if any, Trump’s policies have on gas prices in the long run remains to be seen. According to Bloomberg Gadfly columnists Rani Molla and Liam Denning, oil prices will likely rise if “a more-hawkish Trump foreign policy leads to renewed sanctions on Iran and further conflict in the Middle East.”
Flock’s report is the latest evidence of Fox News’ blatant double standard when it comes to covering gas prices under Republican and Democratic presidents. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president and gas prices were high, Fox News hosts and contributors argued that the president has no power to affect gasoline prices. But in 2012, Fox pundits urged the GOP to deceptively blame President Obama for high gasoline prices. Then, when gas prices began to fall later that year, Fox anchors portrayed low gas prices under Obama as evidence of a weakening economy.
Flock concluded his report by stating that auto industry executives believe gas prices could remain low for years. Some auto executives may hope this is the case, because low gas prices tend to increase sales of expensive trucks and SUVs. But the reality is that gas prices are extremely difficult to predict in the long term. Nonetheless, Flock, who is clearly unconcerned about climate change, declared: “I would say put the Tesla in the garage and break out the Hummer.”
From the November 17 edition of Fox News’ America’s News Headquarters: