Maybe he could implement price caps or freezes? He could create something that uses a 'basic' or 'yardstick' year and all production and prices must be frozen against that unless approved by a select committee. That way, the prices are frozen at a low point and the production is also frozen so it doesn't screw up supply and demand?
Would you invest $8-10 million in drilling and completing a well knowing you might not be able to recover your costs, much less make a profit if the well doesn't come in gangbusters? Hell, no, you'd go buy some cyber shit that doesn't get anyone down the road and won't put a sheet of toilet paper on the shelf at your local store. Great way to kill the industry. When production drops (as it naturally does as the reservoir depletes), and the foreigners want more than the price cap in the US, then what?
Will the government step in and order refineries to operate at a loss?
Or would they just 'nationalize' the industry, like Hugo Chavez?
One more thought: The dynamic prices of oil and gas produce economic environments which pay for the research and experimentation which yields new tools, techniques, and even new reserves of oil and gas. That exploration and development would slow to a crawl without the free flow of money and competition. cap that, and development would starve in a budget environment that fosters an attitude of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.""
As an aside:
I'm sorry, but it pisses me off when people even suggest that what I produce should have a price cap (and a low one) when what they produce has gone up in cost every year for me, no matter how cheap gasoline is. An army of us worked to reduce the cost of energy for everyone by half, and you greedy *****s want more? Show me one other industry that has cut their prices. It isn't health care, it isn't groceries, it d@mn sure isn't the price of the car you pump that gas into. (Bitch about $2.50 gas, drinking that $1.50 a liter bottled water while pumping it into a $65K SUV. Where is the balance in that?)
