President Joe Biden said that American consumers will pay dearly for banning Russian oil imports, but the spike has nothing to do with Russia.
On Tuesday, Biden bowed to strong bipartisan pressure and finally agreed to ban importing Russian oil in response to that country’s unprovoked war upon neighboring Ukraine.
But the decision was "not without cost at home," Biden warned.
"Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump," he claimed, adding that the ban will further increase the price of gasoline.
However, prices at the pump have been rising almost from the moment Biden placed his left hand on the Bible, raised his right hand, and took the oath of office. And they’ve been gaining steam ever since.
Today the national average price for regular gasoline hit $4.252, according to AAA. One week earlier, the average was $3.656. A month ago, long before Russia invaded Ukraine, it was at an already inflated $3.469.
A year ago, shortly after Biden’s inauguration, a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $2.797. On Inauguration Day it was $2.393 per gallon, a rise of more than 40 cents during Biden’s first six weeks in office.
Clearly Russia had nothing then, and has nothing now, to do with the spike in energy costs.
It’s his hostility to the fossil fuel industry and his slavish devotion to a green energy policy.
Biden made that clear in his campaign literature with a promise to "ensure the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050."
And that, unfortunately, was one of the few promises he tried to keep. Biden shut down construction on the Keystone XL pipeline, and ended all new gas and oil leases on public lands.
But the act that impacted production the most was to ramp up EPA regulations, primarily by reinstating restrictions on oil and gas production that the previous administration had rolled back.
Even Democratic lawmakers are growing frustrated by the president’s hamstringing of the energy sector.
A group of Texas Democrats, led by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, delivered a letter to Biden yesterday, applauding his decision to ban the purchase of Russian oil, while urging him to take the shackles off the gas and oil industry.
"We cannot wait for tomorrow to do what needs to be done today," the lawmakers said in the letter. They added, "We must unleash responsible domestic production to counter reliance on Russian oil and gas, while simultaneously cutting off Russia's largest source of revenue. Now is the time to regain our energy independence and support our allies around the globe."
In case he needs a blueprint "to regain our energy independence," Americans for Prosperity listed 25 administrative actions the president took that increases the cost of gas and oil production. All he has to do is to reverse them.
But rather than take steps to ramp up production at home "and support our allies around the globe," he’s reaching out to less friendly countries for oil, including:
- Saudi Arabia, which commits repeated human rights abuses
- Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world
- Venezuela, who’s leaders live lavishly and starve their citizens
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had an answer to escalating fuel prices — buy an electric vehicle.
Apart from its initial cost at $55,000 upwards, perhaps he should be reminded how electric power is generated — most likely by fossil fuel. As the cost of fuel rises, so do electric bills.
Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk saw the fallacy in that thinking and implored a step-up in U.S. gas and oil production.
"Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately," he tweeted Friday. "Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures."
Two days later he told Europe how to wean themselves off of Russian gas and oil.
"Hopefully, it is now extremely obvious that Europe should restart dormant nuclear power stations and increase power output of existing ones," he said, adding, "This is *critical* to national and international security."
Bur what’s most galling is that the president evidently sees green energy policies for what they actually are — a scam.
Last year Biden toured Rome in an 85-car motorcade in the days leading up to the COP26 climate summit.
He also makes the 100-mile trip to one of his Delaware homes nearly every weekend on Air Force One, which sends a loud and clear message to Americans that he can pollute all he wants — only the little people need suffer.
On Monday, António Guterres the secretary general of the United Nations said "Fossil fuels are a dead end — for our planet, for humanity and for economies."
Biden should stop taking advice from Guterres and start taking orders from his real employer — the American people. As former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin often said, "Drill, Baby, Drill!"
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.