Marco Rubio's feeble reassurance on gas prices fails the reality test

News and commentary for all Americans from a Florida perspective

Bob Brecha

Tropic Press Correspondent

Florida’s own Marco Rubio wants to reassure U.S. citizens who might have noticed that it costs more to fill up at the gas station nowadays: “There are people that were predicting [it] would be much higher at this point.”

So, Rubio thinks we should feel fortunate when choosing between filling the tank or, say, paying our electric bill?

Other countries were suffering “big time,” Rubio claimed. The U.S. was “very fortunate” to be a net exporter of oil since it’s less reliant on oil from the Middle East, he said.

So lucky.

But there are several things wrong with Rubio’s statements.

First, it’s his boss, Donald Trump, who has unnecessarily created the chaos that has led to the high prices at the pump. There’s no justification to feel fortunate about rising gas prices because two months ago, before the Iran “adventure,” prices were much lower.

In January, for instance, average Florida gas prices were $2.70 per gallon, and now they are $4.30 per gallon, an increase of 60 percent. Remember Trump’s campaign promises about reducing inflation:

“We’re going to get your energy prices down. We’re going to get your energy prices down by 50 percent. Energy is going to bring us back. That means we’re going down and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs.”

It seems that his 50 percent was broadly correct, but he just got the direction of change wrong. It’s up, not down.

As for other countries suffering, gasoline prices in Europe (it varies by country, but let’s look at Italy and Germany) have hovered around $2 per liter or a bit more over the past year. That’s expensive compared to the U.S., but it’s what people are used to paying. Data for April of this year show that in Germany, the price rose to about $2.50 per liter, and in Italy, there was very little change because the government decided to subsidize the increased cost by removing some taxes. In other words, Italian drivers don’t notice much of anything different at the pump, and Germans have seen an increase of about 25 percent. Thus, we have a 60 percent increase in the U.S., 25 percent in Germany, and no change in Italy.

Who’s suffering most?

Of course, this doesn’t take into account countries that are much less fortunate than wealthy Europeans. Many countries in Asia and Africa are suffering from a lack of deliveries of fuel due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. These hardships will only increase over time as Trump tries to figure out how to extricate himself from this self-inflicted mess.

After all, no matter how he tries to spin the news and float dubious claims about how close we are to a solution, the Strait of Hormuz was completely open a couple of months ago, and now it has become a potent lever that can be used to blackmail the world economy.

As I’ve pointed out in previous commentaries, just because the U.S. is nearly self-sufficient in producing fossil fuels does not mean that we are insulated from price swings due to geopolitical chaos. Oil and natural gas are traded on global markets, so if demand continues and supply is throttled, prices will go up everywhere. U.S. producers will love the opportunity to sell around the world at elevated prices, which will mean U.S. consumers will also be hit.

The final problem with Rubio’s statement is the apparent smugness with which he characterizes the “big time” suffering of other countries.

There is, on the one hand, the childish, non-professional language he uses, which is just embarrassing. But more seriously concerning is the attitude toward, and careless disregard for, the well-being of others that is a constant feature of this administration.

Framing the potential for global suffering as a competition between countries as to who is caused to suffer most, as long as it is not the U.S., is truly beyond cynical. One can only hope that some of Pope Leo’s sense of caring for people of all backgrounds and countries might rub off on Rubio during his visit to the Vatican this week.

Bob Brecha is a retired professor of sustainability, renewable energy and physics (University of Dayton), and longtime newspaper junkie (print and electronic). He consults on energy systems and climate change policies, based in Berlin, Germany. When not fretting about the state of the world and the global climate emergency, he enjoys hiking, biking and reading as much as possible.

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