Bidens’ shameful blame game on soaring gas prices

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Joe Biden, suffering from appalling poll counts, is trying to blame others for the results of his failed policies, which have notably led to soaring inflation and energy costs. In a speech to the White House on Tuesday, Biden tried to win back the trust of angry Americans.

It didn’t go well.

Biden began by telling us the price of gasoline in France and Japan, respectively $ 7 per gallon and $ 5.50, and told us that we had already faced the worst spikes.

Lame.

Most countries around the world have historically had much higher gas prices than the United States, largely because they depend on other countries for their gas. America has benefited from affordable energy because we are, or at least were, energy independent. We have enough natural resources to support ourselves and always share them with other countries. But one of the first things Biden did when he took office was to end any new oil and gas lease on federal lands, making us dependent on Middle Eastern oil.

Biden created this energy crisis but blames others for it.

Much of the reason Americans face high gas prices is that oil-producing countries and big business haven’t increased oil supplies quickly enough to respond.

demand, Biden explained. And the lower supply means higher prices for oil globally.

Biden then proceeded to tell us how he solved the problem.

Today, I am announcing that the largest ever release of the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help provide the supply we need as we recover from this pandemic, Biden said.

Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs) are a large reserve of oil along the Texas and Louisiana coasts that the United States holds in case of an emergency. The SPR is a kind of emergency fund for gasoline, intended to be used only to deal with an interruption in the supply of oil, such as after natural disasters, and has rarely been used to control the price of l ‘gasoline. The release of oil from SPR could push prices down in the short term, but its impact could be limited.

The devil would be in the details, said Monday Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analyzes at GasBuddy. The chair should make sure that it is enough to move the needle, but not so much that the SPR is exhausted.

Biden then went on to tell us that he had brought other nations together to help with the solution: India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the UK agreed to release additional oil from reserves and China. could also do more. This coordinated action will help us deal with the lack of supply which in turn contributes to lower prices.

The problem is, it forces America, a nation with more than enough energy to meet its needs, to rely on the goodwill of other nations. It’s not who we are as Americans. We can go it alone. And we like to go it alone. But not Joe Biden. He wants us to be a dependent nation, a nation that relies on the goodwill of others. This is a very weak long term strategy, which will make the American just another mundane European-style country, not the exceptional nation that we are.

Biden then pivoted to blame his problems on the oil and gas producers.

The price of gasoline in the wholesale market has fallen about 10% in recent weeks, Biden said. The price at the pump has not budged a dime. In other words, the gas companies pay less and earn a lot more. They don’t seem to pass it on to consumers at the pump. In fact, the gap between wholesale and retail gasoline prices was in line with past averages that Americans will pay at least 25 cents less per gallon right now. Instead, companies are pocketing the difference as profit and that’s unacceptable, Biden added.

I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies and nuances of energy prices, but anyone can see the politics here. Biden tries to deviate from his failed policies by blaming others. He said he had asked the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether illegal anti-competitive behavior in the oil and gas industry resulted in higher prices for consumers.

The left’s default position is still to blame the private sector and look to the government for a solution, when the reverse approach is needed.

Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.

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