Joe Romm and NPR took note of this Conan O'Brien compendium of laziness on local news.
Of course, if they wanted to spend a couple of minutes of research, they could have reported that around this time of year for the past eight years, gasoline prices (and diesel) have risen, which you can see here. Or that gasoline prices have been in a generally upward trend over the past 13 years, except during the plunge in demand due to the Great Recession. And they could have informed their audiences that gasoline prices have been more volatile since 2000 than they were in previous years (except during the OPEC oil embargoes of the 1970s).
They might also have helped out their viewers by explaining the many factors leading to a price rise—sanctions on producers, scheduled and unscheduled refinery maintenance, speculation on oil futures. They could have—with a couple of brief phone calls to the right experts—challenged the propaganda that more home-grown oil production from public lands will reduce gasoline prices. They could have compared prices in the United States with prices (and gasoline taxes) in Europe and spoken to advocates and opponents of raising the 21-year-old 18.4-cent federal gasoline tax.
They could have explained how cars for model years 2012-2016 on average add every gallon of gas burned adds about 25 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere. for every gallon of gasoline they burn. Which could be the lead-in for a comment from a climatologist at a nearby university about the long-term impact of burning 367 million gallons of gasoline every day in the United States.
But all that effort would require them to shave a few minutes from getting their make-up properly applied.
[VIA]