Joe Biden has grown increasingly desperate lately to demonstrate a willingness to tackle the gas price crisis created by his own energy policies.
His plan? Send incredibly threatening and fascistic letters to the heads of America’s largest oil companies chastising them for not doing enough to bring down prices for consumers. What’s worse is Biden’s repeated deflection of his own poor decisions while using an adversarial world leader as a scapegoat.
Biden sent letters to seven large integrated refinery operators, including ExxonMobil and BP, that recognized a shortage of refinery capacity is helping drive the price surge but said the profits that companies are making are “not acceptable.” He also said he was prepared to use emergency powers to increase refinery capacity.
High gas prices are directly related to Joe Biden’s failure to resonate with the American public and a major factor in his historically low approval ratings. These letters to our major oil companies are merely one facet of the Democrats’ over-arching plan to demonize profitable companies despite what seems like endless government regulation.
Biden’s letters bring up a glaring inconsistency with the way his administration is approaching the oil and gas industry as a whole.
While on the campaign trail, Biden repeatedly vowed to take oil companies to task, and he’s certainly fulfilled those promises. However, as his political standing takes a huge hit due to unaffordable gas prices, the President is now hectoring these same companies to increase production.
Biden just wrote a letter asking oil companies to produce more. It is total BS. He was JUST bragging about shutting down our off-shore leases in the Gulf. Our oil workers are furious. His prices hurt all of us. The excuses and blame-shifting are pathetic.
pic.twitter.com/5HpEbXIAff— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) June 15, 2022
So, which is it? Does the Biden administration support oil companies increasing production, thus introducing more fossil fuels into the environment, or are they taking a bold stand against the industry as a whole knowing they must handle the immense backlash from the public?
As it stands, the administration is attempting to have it all.
The war in Ukraine, as well as “the bipartisan and global effort to counter it, has disrupted the global supply of oil and driven up the global price,” Biden told refiners.
But, he said, “The sharp rise in gasoline prices is not driven only by rising oil prices, but by an unprecedented disconnect between the price of oil and the price of gas.”
President Biden writes to oil executives complaining (!!!) the industry shut down too much refining capacity:
“At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable" (full letter via @axios ) #OOTT pic.twitter.com/rOv2ANxxGD
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) June 15, 2022
Biden recognized the shortage of refining capacity, which has fallen by around 3 million barrels globally and over 1 million barrels in the U.S. in the last few years, and he said he is working with global partners to bring capacity back online while pressing refiners to do more.
He also said refiners should bring more diesel fuel, gasoline, and other refined products to market to help with prices.
“With prices for your product where they are today, you have ample market incentive to take these actions, and I recognize that some of you have already begun to do so,” he said.
Refiners and others in the oil industry have argued that high prices are a function of higher demand coming out of the worst of the coronavirus pandemic coupled with the lower capacity to refine crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, and other products.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed Biden’s sentiments to oil tycoons, urging them to “be patriots” and lower gas prices — as if CEOs aren’t bound to supply & demand, and other price-setting mechanisms.
However, Bidens’ letters prompted a response from ExxonMobil and it truly doesn’t disappoint.
Exxone comes out swiging vs Biden's Letter! Must read! pic.twitter.com/O5qzTlxZE8
— JEFFERY (@trentkelp) June 15, 2022
Refiners have been operating at over 90% of operable capacity in recent months and were at 94.2% of their operable capacity for the week ending June 8, according to the Energy Information Administration.
So with oil refineries running at nearly 100% capacity, and demand at an all-time high, what could actually explain the reason behind the record-high gas prices we face today?
It’s that one little piece of truth Biden refuses to admit: His own government regulations, which make it more expensive to do business, are directly responsible for the financial tragedy placed on American families.
Author: Sebastian Hayworth
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