OPEC will increase its oil production by 648,000 barrels per day starting in July. President Joe Biden is applauding this decision, but he seems to forget that high gas prices are partially the result of his administration’s energy policies. He wants more oil from OPEC nations but refuses to let American producers meet the demand of the market.
Biden was not worried about high gas prices in May. “Here’s the situation. And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,” he said. It should not come as a surprise that Biden has the worst approval rating in modern presidencies after speaking like that.
Democrats are scared of November’s midterm elections and rightfully so. Republicans are leading in midterm polling because the Biden administration is fumbling right into the GOP’s hands. Inflation is the No. 1 issue in America right now, and Biden’s rampant stimulus spending has overheated the economy. Democrats refuse to take responsibility, yet the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that Biden’s spending played a role in creating inflationary pressure.
Biden could have created long-term resiliency against fluctuating global oil prices, but he refused to recognize his administration had been wrong for too long. At the start of his administration, Biden issued an executive order to halt issuing new oil and gas leases on federal land. As Democrats became desperate for solutions, the administration reversed course and decided in April to hold multiple lease sales over the summer.
The administration is trying to toe a middle line by flip-flopping on oil and gas. Just one month after announcing the summer lease sales, the Interior Department canceled lease sales in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. In an email to the Washington Examiner, the Interior Department cited a “lack of industry interest in leasing in the area.”
If corporations are not interested in new leases, then why is the Biden administration blaming corporate greed? It’s a failure on all fronts to coordinate messaging as the Biden administration falls apart on energy policy.
Perhaps the Biden administration is aware that its messaging fell on deaf ears, hence why it moved on to another ridiculous argument. Biden now blames Russia for rising gas prices. He cites “Putin’s Price Hike” as the source of the issue despite gas prices rising months before the invasion began. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has contributed to the global rise in oil prices, but Putin is not the sole person responsible for this trend.
Biden will try to hide behind OPEC’s announcement because his administration is helpless. More federal stimulus spending is out of the question, thanks to Sen. Joe Manchin. He was one of the few Democrats that decried Biden’s inflationary fiscal policies in 2021.
To deal with the rise in gas prices, governors have been resorting to a policy with popular support: gas tax holidays. On the Republican side of the aisle, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan was the first governor in the nation to sign legislation regarding the gas tax. Georgia quickly followed Maryland’s example by signing a gas tax suspension into law, and Gov. Brian Kemp renewed it shortly before it was due to expire. On the Democratic side, New York lawmakers passed a gas tax suspension for the remainder of 2022.
States attempting to address the concerns of their constituents is commendable, but gas tax holidays are inflationary. Making it easier to get gas when supply is low only increases inflationary pressures. In both Georgia and Maryland, gas prices are rising at a higher rate than the national average. If Biden wants to find who is responsible for starting the surge in gas prices, he should look in the mirror.
Source: Washingtonexaminer.com
