Center for American Progress (CAP) chairman John Podesta and Geoff Garin sent out a memo Saturday urging "interested parties" to help them in a campaign to blame oil companies for high gas prices, according to Kenneth P. Green at the American Enterprise Institute blog. CAP’s stated mission:
By engaging in a public debate centered on exposing oil companies’ successful efforts to rig the system to favor their own profits over the interests of American consumers and expose their deep political and financial ties to conservatives in Congress that continue to defend their billions of dollars in tax breaks, progressives can win the gas price message war.
CAP’s talking points, according to the memo:
- Ban exports on domestic oil
- End subsidies to oil companies
- Crack down on speculators
- More Fuel Efficient Cars and Trucks
As Green noted regarding that third point:
Speculators are the new bogeyman in the energy policy world, and they have magical powers. They never mistakenly bet on oil prices going down, they never miss the peak of oil prices when they’re going up, and they don’t exist when gas is around $2.50 per gallon. Of course, in the real world, speculation is called "hedging," and is seen to have social benefits in ensuring price continuity and damping down price volatility in commodity markets. And, of course, if people had the ability to predict things the way the magical speculators do, there could be no Las Vegas, because the casinos would be broke instantly.