Earlier this year, CNN’s Matt Egan reported that “presidents have limited power to lower gas prices” in a story headlined “Gas prices are in the danger zone. Biden can’t do much about it.”
Egan sang a different tune in 2018 when he reported that experts believed that Trump’s efforts to get the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal would likely inflate gas prices.
So, which is it? Right now, the White House wants you to believe that a president can impact gas prices because it points out that gas prices have been going down the past month to the tune of approximately 50¢ a gallon.
“Gas prices have been dropping for 34 days straight, about 50 cents a gallon. That saves the average driver about $25 a month,” Joe Biden tweeted from the official POTUS account on Twitter. “I know those extra dollars and cents mean something. It’s breathing room. And we’re not done working to get prices even lower.”
Gas prices have been dropping for 34 days straight, about 50 cents a gallon. That saves the average driver about $25 a month.
I know those extra dollars and cents mean something. It's breathing room. And we're not done working to get prices even lower.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 18, 2022
Wow, gas prices have been going down for 34 straight days? I guess we’re supposed to forget that gas prices had been trending upward for the more than 500 other days he’s been in office.
Joe Biden wants credit for bringing gas prices down. pic.twitter.com/rnlBtUqxve
— Margolis & Cox (@MargolisandCox) July 19, 2022
I guess we’re supposed to forget that Joe Biden promised to cripple the fossil fuel industry during the 2020 campaign?
“I want you to look into my eyes. I guarantee you; I guarantee you, we are going to end fossil fuel, and I am not going to cooperate with them,” Biden promised back in September 2019. And you’re still paying nearly double for gas than when Biden took office in January 2021 because he’s followed through on that promise.
Biden wants us to believe that he’s brought prices down, but he wants us to forget that one of the first things Joe Biden did upon taking office was axing the Keystone XL pipeline. He also signed executive orders ending Trump’s energy independence initiatives and directed government agencies to review and rescind Trump-era policies that made the United States energy independent.
In addition, Biden pushed for more burdensome emissions regulations and limited domestic energy production, among other things. A week later, he announced a moratorium on new oil and gas leases and set a goal of doubling costly and inefficient wind power production by 2025.
I guess we’re supposed to believe that those things didn’t impact gas prices.
We’re also supposed to forget that according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that was released in December, the Biden administration predicted that gas prices would average $2.88/gal this year. The current national average is $4.49 a gallon.
Of course, the real question is, why have gas prices gone down? Did Biden actually do something? Can we thank all those millions of gallons of oil he raided from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that he sent off to his buddies in China for the decline?
Actually, it was because of a decline in demand due to high gas prices, vehicle efficiency, and less traveling. But don’t take my word for it. That’s the Biden administration talking, not me.
“Based on weekly estimates in our Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR), less gasoline has been consumed in the United States during the second quarter of 2022 and early July than during the same period in 2021,” explains the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Our latest Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) confirms the trend, which shows that U.S. gasoline consumption (measured as product supplied) averaged 8.8 million barrels per day (b/d) this April, or 0.4% less than during April 2021.”
In other words, it wasn’t Biden waving a magic wand; it was the American people adapting to historic inflation and record high gas prices.
Congratulations, consumers; you did it. Not Biden.
But don’t expect it to last. Gas prices are still likely to go up again and reach new highs before Election Day.
