Do presidents really have any power over gas prices?

One thing that I never understand is people who blame high gas prices on the president.  I'm never sure what they want the president to do.  The president in no way sets gas prices unless he institutes price controls (which would require congress's help) and price controls only result in shortages where you can't buy gas at any price.  Please reference the 1970s...

The only thing that the president can do that will even remotely affect gas prices is to open more areas of the US to drilling and this won't have any effect for the several years in takes to get the oil fields up and running.  Also, based on what I have read from leading economists, people vastly over estimate how much this would lower gas prices.  This means that the president has virtually no control of the gas prices during his term in office.

The problem is that gas prices are highly visible and almost everyone needs to buy gas so it is something that everyone likes to complain about.  However, none of this means that there is an easy way to reduce gas prices.


Note: This is not really what I wanted to write about today but I've heard too many people blame Obama for high gas prices recently when it makes no sense.  I'm not a big Obama fan but if we are going to bash him lets at least blame him for things that are actually his fault.

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