Thanks, Mr. President: Yet again, gas prices hit another dizzying record high on Tuesday.
This time, data from the American Automobile Association showed the price for a gallon of regular gas surged 5 cents in just 24 hours nationally to hit a new peak (or valley, if you’re the one buying it) of $4.919.
What’s more, the national average of a gallon of regular surged nearly 30 cents since a week ago and 10 cents between Saturday and Tuesday. A month ago, a gallon was more than 60 cents cheaper — and that was still considered a massive spike over the $2.39 a gallon that President Joe Biden inherited on Inauguration Day in 2021.
(Here at The Western Journal, we’ve documented the long and avoidable road to runaway inflation, especially on gas prices. This was entirely avoidable — and we’ll continue to bring readers the facts about why it was. You can help us by subscribing.)
How high is the price going to go?
Energy industry expert Andy Lipow told Fox Business that it likely soon would top $5.00 amid greater demand caused by summer travel. It inched closer to that figure early Wednesday, with AAA putting the price at $4.955.
Lipow said a loss in oil production and refinery capacity due to hurricane season could send prices soaring even higher.
“A major storm making landfall along the Gulf Coast, where 15 percent of the nation’s oil production and over 45 percent of the nation’s refinery capacity is located, can result in a significant supply disruption sending prices even higher,” he said.
The hurricane season, which began on June 1, runs through the end of November.
Is President Biden responsible for high gas prices?
Economist Steve Moore, meanwhile, said the cause was Biden’s “self-inflicted wounds” and urged the White House to pause its climate agenda to address the pain at the pump.
“This is a result of policies that were implemented,” he told Fox News in a Monday interview. “These are self-inflicted wounds that are not a result of COVID. But in fact, because COVID’s basically over, we should be seeing less inflation, better growth.”
“I’d love to see President Biden say, we’re going to work toward a pause on the climate change craziness, and we’re going to continue to drill and to get American oil and gas. I think that would start to bring that oil price down,” Moore said.
“I was looking at those charts you were showing earlier on the show, and it was amazing because, I think you said it was $4.45 a gallon for the national average for the gas price, it was about $2.39 or so a gallon the day that Joe Biden took office. So do the math there. That means that we’ve got a doubling in the gas price in 15 months.”
Don’t tell that to the president, though.
While he’s assured the American people that he’s “taking inflation very seriously and it’s my top domestic priority,” Biden and his administration have pinned the tail of high gas prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and insisted they can’t do much about it.
“There’s a lot going on right now but the idea we’re going to be able to click a switch, bring down the cost of gasoline, is not likely in the near term. Nor is it with regard to food,” Biden said during a speech about the baby formula shortage at the White House on June 1.
“We’re in a situation where, because of a war in Ukraine, gas prices and food prices are extremely high,” he said.
“For example, we got millions of tons of wheat that is not able to get out and get to market. It’s causing everything from a loaf of bread to cost so much money, to food shortages all across the world,” the president continued.
“And so we’re trying to work through a war. We’re trying to work through how we can get that harbor opened. And get the, you know, tens of thousands of tons of grain that are there.”
This is similar to what he’d said, in much terser language, early in March:
REPORTER: What can you do about skyrocketing gas prices?
BIDEN: “Can’t do much right now. Russia’s responsible.” pic.twitter.com/UZrBUEsliQ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2022
Of course, when things are looking rosy (or at least rosy-ish), Biden is more than happy to take the credit.
Take this infamous, much-mocked tweet from December where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thanked Biden for lowering the cost of a gallon by 2 cents over two weeks.
Thanks, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/0iHwTLv7fB
— DCCC (@dccc) December 2, 2021
That’s been more than wiped out — gas prices have increased over $1.50 during those six months.
Meanwhile, don’t expect the Biden administration to back off its climate agenda, either.
On Monday, CNN reported, the White House announced it was invoking the Defense Production Act to increase the supply of the energy product it apparently thinks American consumers need: solar panels.
With priorities like that, you can rest assured gas prices are likely to get worse before they get better.
