There is a knob, seems to be located on a golf course most of the time, that does have much indirect control of oil prices. One of his election promises was that energy prices would "necessarily have to raise". I'll give him credit for that one.
It's not that the Prez "controls" fuel prices, it's that his actions profoundly affect them. The "price" of oil is partly speculative. A whole bunch of folk look ahead and guess if prices will rise or fall, and then buy/sell/hold accordingly.
Because of that, a relatively small group can change the price simply by selling or buying a large amount of "paper oil". If, for example, the Mullahs in Iran make noises about cooperating with the UN and how peaceful they want the world to be, the guess is oil prices will fall, so they sell, ( a quantity of oil that doesn't even exist yet ) and those sales lower the price. Same deal the other way, Mullahs shake fists on tv, people think it's going to get pricey, they buy more futures, and, viola, it does. Mostly the market is too big for one guy to manipulate it that way, but the trading floor has news on every screen, and there is a herd animal mentality under the cut throat image they use to play their dominance games. ( often at the bar after work...... it's a mating ritual, too )
See "Trading Places" for a humorous view of what I speak.
Now the Prez, CAN and does affect prices. If he gets up and reads a nice speech that says America is going to exploit every drop of domestic oil until the Mullahs are broke, and their hold on the region is broken, coupled with an aggressive expansion in the cleanest possible electric power generation, including new, safe, nuclear, solar, Unicorn Flatulence, etc... and ends it with a rousing "we are going to bust our asses and WIN!!!"
Then the price of oil drops like a rock, followed by gasoline as soon as the expensive stuff in the pipes and gas station tanks gets replaced by cheaper....
He doesn't even have to do a damn thing, except give a good speech.
OTOH, if he tells us the price of energy is going to skyrocket, that he's going to destroy the coal mining & power industry, that he's not going to approve a pipeline to bring in Canuck oil, and his only known issue with high gas prices, at all, is if it rises fast enough to throw mud his way.
Then the price will go up, and stay up.
Like, double, and then be decreed "the new normal".
Don't discount the simple fact that to make a replacement fuel be practical, it cannot cost much more than old school gasoline.
You can't stay in business selling $15 a gallon superdupercleanecofuel if gas is only $3. Only a handful of fairly wealthy people will buy it and to get the price on any industrial chemical down you need to build a plant to make it in large quantities. It just won't sell.
Unless you crank up the price of gasoline.
Which you can do with one speech, as well.
I'm fairly well informed on the status of new aviation fuel. The current "best", 110LL is made in limited amounts, has evil lead in it, and is going to vanish fairly soon. Thousands of old Lycomings and Continentals, ( not to mention hundreds of Wrights, P&Ws, Jocobs, etc ) just won't run for long on auto gas without burning up.
Seriously, most airplanes that fly overhead with a piston engine are the very best refinement of 1947 engines you can ask for.
While the latest new built ones can run auto gas, ALL the old ones are going to need new valve seats, valves, and possibly compression changes.
So there are a few companies looking to be the one that makes the "new avgas". Results look promising now, but only time will tell what the price of the winner is going to be.
Boats, especially since they tend to live a long time in backyards, ( so there are some real old ones in service ) have a problem with modern gas too. The boozey stuff ruins all sorts of parts, and there are still V8's out there that are going to burn up the valves without lead or additives.
Again, not that big a problem for new built stuff, and ironically, the 2 stroke outboards prefer lead free gas as sparkplugs last longer.
We went out for a half-day yesterday, fish wouldn't bother to strip the worm off my hook... gonna release the rest of the BIG nightcrawlers in the garden, let them have a happy life and actually become productive for us. The day was still very nice out on the water, if nothing else the sheer peacefulness was a blessing, since we basically live downtown here in Mur-vil.
Whilst boating/floating, all the while watching a colony of sugar ants in full panic/relocation mode, also several stinkbugs who seemed disappointed about their new "home" becoming mobile, we agreed that re-doing the boat ourselves is quite doable. We'll have to strip out all the wood and old fabric, do the patterns, and get busy with a few staple and hot glue guns. A fair amount of online study over the winter will be in order too.
Somehow the re-do will have to include a treatment that will scare away the bugs without being toxic to humans or domestic critters. Ideas?
Posted on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - 10:29 am:
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, In preparation for a boat outing, my boat gets sprayed for bugs and spiders and such, every time. AND.....I always carry some sort of mosquito repellent on board. I have run into swarms of them on still warm summer evenings.
Glad to hear you got to successfully float the yacht, the first few voyages are fun!(fast learning curve)
I finally got the little ol' yacht out on the lake. What a beautiful calm day it was. The wife and a few kids. We just rode out and floated in the middle of the lake, covering those raggety seats with towels, getting comfortable and laying back in the sun and snoozing a bit.
I intended to motor up the lake about ten miles or so but the boat did not want to go there. On my prep start up I heard something unusual. It has turned into something boat ugly. A bearing in the input of the out drive has gone all squiggly! It is probably the same bearing that is used on the rear axle of the Uly!
It'll make a few hundred yards at a time no problem, but work has to be done for sure.
Oh well, refer to boating 101...." a hole in the water in which to throw money!" Since I am going to now learn out-drive disassembly and repair, it is more the labor than money for me.
I was always told the "knob" was in the seat!
(fast learning curve) 
