doIt was not lost. During the televised debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday, September 10, the question of oil quickly came up in the heated exchanges. To counter the attack of her opponent, who accuses her of wanting the death of American oil, the Vice President of the United States noted that, while she welcomes the unprecedented program of public spending on renewable energy undertaken by the Biden administration, on the other hand, the United States has never extracted so much oil from its soil. To the point of once again becoming the world’s leading producer. A way to pull the rug out from under Donald Trump and his favorite slogan. “Drill, baby, drill” (“Drill, baby, drill”).
It is also not impossible that the ardent promoter of green energy, who wanted, in 2019, to limit the exploitation of shale oil, owes her election in November to the price of gasoline. A great classic of American history.
In a survey by Bloomberg, three in ten voters in key election states consider fuel prices to be the most crucial economic issue. However, the price of unleaded fuel is falling below $3 per gallon (78 cents per litre, or approximately 70 euro cents) in many states.
Falling demand
The reason for this decline obviously goes far beyond US politics. The world price of black gold has been falling sharply for several months. Brent crude oil, one of the most closely watched indicators, has fallen back below the $70 mark, returning to pre-war levels in Ukraine. A fall that is also translating into a larger-than-expected drop in inflation. In the United States, it is approaching the 2% target set by the American central bank.
So this ancient link between rising prices and oil prices remains in our memory and remains at the heart of our economies. Same cause, same effects on this side of the Atlantic. The price of petrol is also, for the general public, one of the surest indicators of the level of inflation. And the decline is there too. Tuesday, The Parisian published on the front page of the newspaper the price of diesel fuel in the E.Leclerc supermarket in Plan de Campagne, in Cabriès (Bouches-du-Rhône): 1.49 euros per litre. An event!
At the same time, inflation in August in France stood at 1.9%. Of course, the reasons for this slowdown are mainly to be found in the economic slowdown, which in itself is largely the result of energy prices. It is also this fall, especially in Europe and China, that explains the drop in demand for black gold. The cartel of producing countries, OPEC, has decided to postpone its plans to increase production. But it is a return to basics. Humanity is not done living at the pace of the price of Brent, and the American elections depend on it.
