An ad from the American Energy Alliance (AEA) lambasts President Obama for gas prices that have “nearly doubled” since the start of his administration, but the ad’s claims rest on a series of distortions obscuring the fact that the president has little control over globally determined oil costs. Obama didn’t, as the ad claims, categorically write off Alaskan energy. A loan to a clean energy company has nothing to do with gas prices. Approving the Keystone pipeline wouldn’t bring energy prices down to pre-recession levels. Finally, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has recanted his 2008 statement about driving up gas costs, citing the recession and saying that “there are many, many reasons why we do not want the price of gasoline to go up.”

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