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.”
It was a curious take from Egan since just a few years earlier, he was more than happy to link gas prices to presidential actions. In 2018, he reported that experts believed Trump’s efforts to get the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal would likely inflate gas prices. More recently, Egan was also more than willing to credit Biden’s raiding of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with contributing to the nearly 100-day decline in gas prices.
Of course, when gas prices were at historic highs, Joe Biden blamed anything and anyone else but himself, including Trump, COVID-19, Big Oil and gas stations, and, of course, Vladimir Putin for rising costs — as if that would make us forget everything he’s done to raise gas prices.
The moment gas prices started trending downward, however, Biden said that was all him. He took complete ownership of the decline in gas prices, even though experts argue that raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve had minimal impact on prices. Still, two weeks ago, Biden wanted the credit for gas prices. But now, not so much, and Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pointed this out during Tuesday’s White House press briefing.
“You’ve said the president was responsible for gas prices coming down,” Doocy said. “Is the president responsible for gas prices going up?”
“So, it’s a lot more nuanced than that, right, Peter? You know this,” Jean-Pierre said, before diving into the Biden administration’s excuse Rolodex for reasons why Biden isn’t responsible for gas prices when they go up. “There have been global challenges that we have all have dealt with—when I say all, meaning other countries, as well—have dealt with since the pandemic. There’s been a pandemic and there’s been Putin’s war. And Putin’s war has increased gas prices at the pump.”
DOOCY: "You've said the president was responsible for gas prices coming down. Is he responsible for gas prices going up?"
KJP: "So, it's a lot more nuanced than that." pic.twitter.com/8P1P1JPa2v
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 4, 2022
Of course! Nuance! There’s always a reason why Biden is responsible for gas prices going down, but not up. We’re supposed to forget that one of his first acts in office was to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, or we’re supposed to pretend that didn’t impact gas prices.
We’re supposed to forget that Biden signed executive orders canceling Trump’s energy independence initiatives and ordering government agencies to review and roll back Trump administration policies that made the United States energy independent, or we’re supposed to pretend that those actions didn’t impact gas prices.
We’re supposed to forget that Biden advocated for restrictions on domestic energy production and for stricter regulations on emissions, as well as a freeze on new oil and gas leases. But that’s nuance, not reality, according to the White House.
Also, the fact that the Biden administration predicted gas prices would average $2.88/gallon this year, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in December, is supposed to be forgotten. The current average price per gallon across the country is $4.49.
So when gas prices go down, even by a mere two cents a gallon, it’s Biden’s glory, but when they go up, it’s more nuanced. Last week, he preemptively blamed Big Oil for gas prices by claiming, without any evidence, that gas company executives might engage in price gouging because of Hurricane Ian.
Also for our VIPs: SPR Oil Level Hits 40-Year Low as Hurricane Season Fires Up. Thanks, Brandon.
The current increase in gas prices was predicted months ago. The fact is, there was only so much gimmickry Biden had in his toolbox to obfuscate the impact of his disastrous policies. But there’s little left to raid from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the impact of supply shortages is starting to ripple nationwide. Even if we assume that raiding the reserves was largely responsible for the 98-day decline in gas prices, that “solution” proved itself not to be the solution Biden hoped it would be. Now, gas prices are back up, the reserves have to be refilled, and we’re just a few weeks away from the midterm elections.
Historically speaking, when gas prices go up, voters tend to blame the party in power. The Biden administration would pay the price politically regardless, but since the administration established ownership of gas prices over the past three months, it’ll be nearly impossible to divorce itself from them now.
