These guys of course don’t really understand what determines price. We could have cheap oil prices again either by increasing supply or decreasing demand.
The supply issue is pretty obvious:
1. The US could allow drilling in certain off limit areas.
2. The US could allow oil drilling companies special tax deductions on drilling expenses. [We once did, but I am not sure if the Dims have killed those or not.]
3. The US could subsidize or allow special tax breaks for the construction of plants to produce oil from shale oil.
4. Start a new war between Irag and Iran so they have an incentive to produce beyond their OPEC quota to buy weapons.
People seem to be missing the demand issues:
A. We could help bring back international communism. A little Maoism revival in China and oil prices would drop like a rock. A little socialism in India would help too.
B. Americans could conserve too as the Dims want.
To me the demand options are not so good nor is supply option 4. So I favor the first three of the supply options to the extent they are realistic.
That is I don’t know how much subsidy it would take for a shale oil plant. I do not favor subsidizing the production, just building the plant if that is the stumbling block to producing oil from shale oil. More production in other areas is fine with me too.