At the end of the briefing the room was silent apart from one question on the effect on oil prices from the chair of one of the world's largest oil companies.
Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, said investors are encouraged by the effort, but she doesn't think a deal, if one happens, will have much effect on oil prices.
True, volatile gas prices will continue to befuddle Americans, but increasing domestic oil production not only takes a long time but would have a very limited effect on oil prices (and certainly a negligible one in the short term).
But increasingly expensive crude seems to be losing its effect on oil stocks.
Artificially manipulating the price of energy in this way would have an insignificant effect on oil dependency.
The aides acknowledged that Mr. Gore's new proposals would have little short-term effect on oil prices.
The effect on oil prices was fleeting: they fell sharply after the IEA's intervention, but rebounded within a few days.
Considering the poor mileage of so many trucks, the addition of 9,000 guzzlers to American roads will not have much effect on oil imports.
The only way speculation can have a persistent effect on oil prices, then, is if it leads to physical hoarding — an increase in private inventories of black gunk.
So unless the government heavily subsidizes vehicles with new technologies, their sales may be limited along with their effect on oil imports and emissions of global warming gases.
In an address to the nation Tuesday night, Mr. Obama apologized for the effect on oil workers who had nothing to do with the BP accident.
