The president denies that his energy policies have reduced oil production, which he says is above the average that existed under his predecessor
Gasoline is for the summer. That’s why Joe Biden wants the taxes on it to go on vacation first, but he also knows it’s not going to happen. The proposal he launched on Wednesday to cut gasoline prices on the eve of November’s parliamentary elections is as unlikely to succeed in Congress as his party in the election, as long as inflation remains at its highest level in 40 years.
14 years ago, when the Republican Party also proposed it on the eve of the election, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama categorically opposed it, calling it an “accounting trick” to please the electorate. Not surprisingly, the opposition is now repeating its words to its former vice president. Biden is desperate to show Americans that the problems they face when they reach for their wallets at the grocery store or gas station are not their fault. The mistake, he emphasized again and again, lies with Putin, whose name he repeated 11 times. The White House even took the unusual step of including images of the invasion on all televisions as a backdrop for the president.
“Let’s remember how we got here. Putin invaded Ukraine, that’s the facts. Since the war in Ukraine started this year, the price of gasoline has increased by two dollars a gallon,” he recalls. “I already warned that we would pay a price for it at gas stations, in addition to military weapons. We could have looked the other way, but we would have acted wrong.
Suspending the 80 cents per gallon the federal government is levying on fuel for three months would be an unprecedented measure that would be barely noticeable in the pockets of motorists, partly because there are no guarantees that oil companies and gas stations will pay those entire savings. the consumer. Several Republican lawmakers have asked for evidence that this would be the case, also knowing it is impossible.
Biden asked states to do the same with their taxes “to give families a little relief,” but Connecticut and New York have already done that, deducting an average of 30 cents a gallon without being noticed. In Minnesotta, the governor has proposed using some of the surplus to send home a gas check. Economists warn that this could increase demand and cause prices to continue to rise. That is why some recommend allowing market forces to act, which are already driving motorists to change their behaviour, in a country where public transport is almost non-existent. That could trigger the contraction in the economy that the Biden administration is trying to avoid for fear of a recession.
The president denied on Wednesday that his energy policies have cut oil production, which he says is above the average of his predecessor, reaching 12 million barrels per day this month. In addition, his administration is putting one million more barrels into circulation every day, from strategic reserves, and has convinced other countries to join a total of 240 million barrels. On his next visit to Saudi Arabia, he will try to convince this country to increase the supply while promoting the sale of ethanol, “which will be at the lowest price in thousands of gas stations in the US this summer,” he promised.
“The problem is with the refineries,” he said, “some of which are closed during the pandemic.” So last week he wrote a letter to the CEOs of the major oil companies asking them to work with his government to put “practical ideas and short-term steps” on the table. The desperate plea is, “Let’s all work on this together,” he asked.
Source: La Verdad
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