President Biden’s energy policies are making inflation worse
- BY Sarah Coffey
In a recent hearing, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) brushed off the severity of rising gas prices as she described driving her electric car to Washington, D.C.: “I went by every single gas station, and it didn’t matter how high it [the price of gas] was.”
President Biden echoed this sentiment when he posited the solution to high gas prices is simply switching to electric. It’s becoming clear that restricting supply of fossil fuels is the goal the administration, regardless of how much it costs the average American family.
From the beginning of his term, the president’s policies have quashed attempts at energy independence, taken concrete steps to reduce the supply of oil and gas, and stifled the growth of the oil and gas industries.
On his first day in office, President Biden cancelled the cross-border permit for the Keystone Pipeline. Not only would the pipeline have brought nearly one million barrels of oil into the U.S. every day, but it would’ve done so more cleanly and safely than moving oil via truck or rail.
Instead, now that imports from Russia have ceased, the U.S. has resorted to buying more oil from Venezuela—a nation that is an unapologetic ally of Russia. Historically, the U.S. has imported oil from countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, who are notorious for the lack of regulation and high pollution their oil and gas production involves. In the name of the environment, why does the administration persist in buying oil and gas from places whose production methods are worse for the environment?
Illogical environmental motives aside, the administration’s poor energy policy is hitting Americans in the pocketbook. Families, commuters, farmers, and business owners are feeling the effects of nearly nine percent inflation. Unsurprisingly, when it costs more to transport goods, those goods will inevitably cost more.
But this is something the president either doesn’t understand or isn’t interested in addressing. Another poor policy decision was to cancel leases for oil drilling on federal lands. Even more uncertainty for American oil and gas is on the horizon as the administration has yet to renew the federally mandated five-year offshore drilling plan, the latest of which expires June 30. A senior official at the American Petroleum Institute noted, “The administration talks about the need for more supply [of oil], and acts to restrict it.”
If we needed any further proof that the Left is putting its agenda before the American people, the Biden administration is mandating that retirement fund managers consider climate change in their investment decisions with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. A new Securities and Exchange Commission regulation will also require all publicly traded companies to disclose “climate-related risks” to their investors. These efforts essentially “manipulate the market” by siphoning investments away from oil and gas companies. As a result, oil and gas plants end up shutting down and have their access to capital hindered, reducing the supply of energy in the U.S. without doing anything to address rising demand.
The president routinely claims he “can’t do much” about gas prices and places the bulk of the blame for high energy costs on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He could, in fact, do a great deal to lower gas prices in America by simply making policy decisions that boost supply and help the country achieve energy independence. But he won’t—the shocking prices at the gas pump are directly attributable to President Biden’s energy policies and are an attempt to push a radical “green” agenda at the expense of the average American family.
The Left remains as out-of-touch as ever with the sky-high prices, uncertainty, and suffering their policies are inflicting upon American families.
While the president courts a radical “green” agenda and while Sen. Stabenow touts how unaffected she is by gas prices, millions of American families aren’t so lucky. Instead, they’re making hard decisions to buy less and go without—simply because they can’t afford to do anything else right now. The Biden administration’s energy policies are making inflation even worse, and Americans are paying the price.