Joe Biden announced that he will tap into the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve in order to lower the price of gasoline — this after deliberately cutting production by shutting down pipelines and refusing to grant drilling permits in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s unknown how Biden can promote his climate agenda while increasing fossil fuel production. Environmental activists are puzzled — and angry.
Washington Post:
“There is a huge contradiction right now in their actions,” said Jean Su, who directs the Energy Justice Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to stop the oil rights auction. “It’s really all hands on deck right now for climate. . . . Right now is not the time for more oil and gas production.”
The president himself has acknowledged some measure of “irony” in his campaign for more production of fossil fuels — and lower prices that would let Americans burn more of them — as his administration has set a course for net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
“More oil now, less oil later,” is the headline in The Post. It boggles the mind how transparently idiotic this policy is. And these are the smart guys?
Want to hear something even dumber? Releasing gas from the Strategic Oil Reserve won’t lower the price of gasoline by one single penny.
While energy experts have consistently said a release of U.S. reserves would likely do little to lower gas prices, the White House said the effort would be undertaken “in parallel” with similar efforts by China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom.
Average U.S. gas prices stood at $3.41 as of Monday, according to AAA, with costs even higher in some parts of the country such as Pennsylvania and Nevada. It is unclear how much the White House effort would immediately affect prices. Oil prices have begun to tick down independent of the administration’s efforts, in part due to fears of new lockdowns in Europe crimping demand.
If releasing crude from the Strategic Oil Reserve won’t lower the price, why do it?
Related: Jen Psaki Says the Quiet Part Out Loud on High Gas Prices
Biden needs a good old-fashioned political scapegoat to deflect blame from himself and his ruinous policies. So the president is creating a plot by the big oil companies to keep the price of fuels high. He has sicced the Federal Trade Commission on the oil companies, ordering them to “investigate” what he calls “anti-consumer” behavior.
“The bottom line is this: gasoline prices at the pump remain high, even though oil and gas companies’ costs are declining,” Biden wrote in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan. “The Federal Trade Commission has authority to consider whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump. I believe you should do so immediately.”
The “anti-consumer” behavior is coming directly from the Oval Office. When the president of the United States cheerleads the rest of the world to cut production of fossil fuels and then prices go up as the supply goes down, who or what else is there to blame? Some cockamamie plot for the evil and greedy oil companies to make more money? Or a senile old fool who doesn’t know the first thing about supply and demand?
Source: PJ Media
