Gas prices are higher than they ever have been, and it is taking a toll on the economy.
Some people are saying that the president has little to no control over gas prices. The fact is historically the presidents in the past have made decisions that affected the price of gas.
Nixon froze all prices and wages during his term.
On Aug. 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.” (Healy 2011)
After a 90‐day freeze, increases would have to be approved by a “Pay Board” and a “Price Commission,” with an eye toward eventually lifting controls: Cato Institute. “Remembering Nixon’s Wage and Price Controls,” August 16, 2011. https://www.cato.org/commentary/remembering-nixons-wage-price-controls.
And we can see that the answer changes based on who is president as well:
About 71% of all Democrats said presidents could do a lot to rein in gas prices. Six years later Democrat Barack Obama was president, and CBS/New York Times repeated the same question in their March survey. This time, 42% of Democrats said the president had the power to influence the price of gasoline — fully 29 percentage points fewer than those holding that view when Bush was president.
Morin, Rich. “Can a President Control Gas Prices? Depends on When You Ask.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, July 25, 2013. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/25/can-a-president-control-gas-prices-depends-on-when-you-ask/.
South Carolina has controls on public utilities where they must get approval to raise rates, so as you can see the government can control expenses it is being done and has been done for many years.
Another thing that is affecting prices is the push for electric vehicles, people mention supply and demand, well when you are having the government fund electric vehicles over gas powered engines then yes there will be lower demand for gas. So far it is not as big of a problem yet because there still isn’t as many electric vehicles as gas powered engines.
The ones that are being hit the hardest are those that use diesel, so that is really having a dreadful impact on truckers that deliver goods for us. We are seeing food prices, and other items increase in price due to higher fuel cost.
