With the travel-heavy Memorial Day weekend upon us, the fast-rising cost of gasoline is getting a lot of attention.
Last week, gasoline rose above $4 a gallon in all fifty states. That’s the first time that has happened. Some are predicting gas could reach $6 a gallon this summer. If that comes to pass, the average American family could see a major impact on their budgets.
(It might be noted as well, that the price of home heating oil has nearly doubled this year. If that continues, the economic impact next winter, especially in the northeast, where a high percentage of homes are heated by oil, will be considerable.)
The threat of a recession is rising thanks to fuel shortages.
Why has the price of gasoline risen so far so fast? Easy: the Biden administration, driven by the ideological fantasy of a green-energy future, has hampered domestic production and exploration at every turn.
On Inauguration Day itself, the administration revoked the permit for the Keystone Pipeline that would have allowed the importation of 1,000,000 barrels of heavy Canadian crude per day and sent it to Gulf Coast refineries, which are designed to handle such oil. This was unprecedented, because while permits have often been denied by green-minded Democratic administrations, none has ever before been revoked while construction was actually already underway.
Many other areas that hold promise of considerable potential have been declared off-limits. The administration claims that there are plenty of oil and gas leases waiting to be exploited. That is true. But leasing a tract of land from the federal government is one thing, while getting the series of permits needed to explore and build is quite another. The Department of the Interior has been slow-walking those permits, despite the quickly rising price of fossil fuels.
The war in Ukraine has also complicated the situation. With Europe finally awake to the danger of depending on Russia for much of its energy needs, the United States needs to be the source of natural gas for our European allies. But this has been hampered by the lack of liquified natural gas terminals on the East Coast.
Again, this was caused by the difficulty of getting the needed federal and state permits. New York State has been denying permits for pipelines across the state throughout the Governor Cuomo (and now Hochul) administration. Despite the recession-mired upstate economy, New York State has forbidden the exploitation of the abundant natural gas resources that could be exploited by fracking. Neighboring areas in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, are thriving thanks to the new technology.
With political pressure building as fuel costs keep rising, the Biden administration has been begging oil-exporting countries, including Saudi Arabia and even heavily-sanctioned Venezuela, to increase production to ease shortages in the United States. They have not responded favorably. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia even recently refused to take a phone call from President Biden — an almost unprecedented act for a supposedly friendly foreign leader.
The administration has been allowing 1,000,000 barrels a day to be drawn from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That may sound good, but the United States uses 20,000,000 barrels a day, so it’s actually a drop in the bucket.
Political pressure is certain to rise as the summer driving season gets into full swing. Gas station pumps across the country have been sprouting stickers placed by irate drivers showing Joe Biden pointing to the price and saying, “I did that!”
With the midterm elections on the horizon and all the leading political indicators pointing to a grim outcome for Democrats, the question is: will the Biden administration stick it out? Or, fearing a wipeout, will Biden put the immediate crisis first and let the supposedly green future wait?
https://spectatorworld.com/topic/biden-energy-policy-us-headed-toward-recession-gas-prices/
