The gas price crisis in the United States continues to spiral out of control. Those in the South have seen their gas prices double to over $3.00 a gallon over the last several months, but they have it easy compared to places like California, where one station was recently charging over $7.00 a gallon. That’s enough to make Europe blush.
(see Media Cover for Joe Biden as Gas Prices Surge to Levels Not Seen Since Joe Biden Was VP)
Of course, every bit of this was self-inflicted on the nation, not by consumers, but by the Biden administration pandering to far-left delusions about climate change completely destroying the planet.
So what’s the solution? Is it to drill more domestically? To greenlight Keystone XL and other pipelines? To allow more fracking and offer more leases domestically? Nah, it’s to beg a bunch of terrorist sympathizing countries in the Middle East to pump more oil in the dirtiest way possible.
There’s a lot of stupidity involved in this, but let’s focus on the fact that we all live on the same planet. What I mean by that is that if the American left is concerned about climate change, they aren’t fighting it by blocking cleaner energy production (including natural gas) domestically. Having OPEC pump more oil out in the desert actually exacerbates the issue. Given that, why not increase production at home, which will result in fewer emissions if a lot of that production includes natural gas and building more next-gen nuclear power plants? That would also provide jobs for Americans in a time of out-of-control inflation and a stagnating economy.
But there’s too much common sense involved in that proposition, and the administration is not operating based on logic. Rather, the entire war on domestic energy production is one big self-defeating virtue signal. It does not make sense on a rational level, even if one’s goal is to lower emissions. Yet, Biden blew up Keystone XL anyway because he wanted to make pink-haired lefties who block highways feel like they are saving the planet.
Meanwhile, normal Americans are paying the price as energy costs, not just at the pump, but at home as well, eat into their already limited paychecks.
Lastly, let’s just note that crying to OPEC isn’t going to work. They never kowtow to American pressure because they have no incentive to. That move didn’t work under Barack Obama and it’s not going to work now. So regardless, the answer remains more domestic production. That the Biden administration won’t do everything in their power to help economically embattled Americans is yet another black mark on an already thoroughly marked-up administration.
Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised. This is the same president who left Americans stranded behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, so abandoning people is kind of his thing.