What’s the quickest way to create a fuel shortage? Tell gas companies they can’t raise prices on their products.
Hurricane Ian is plowing through Florida, wreaking havoc on the power grid and disrupting life for millions of people. Fuel trucks are unable to maneuver through roads with trees strewn everywhere, and with no power, the pumps don’t work anyway.
Here comes Joe Biden to the rescue.
“I want to add one more warning … to the oil and gas industry executives. Do not — let me repeat, do not — use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” Biden said in a speech as the eyewall of the storm moved onshore in Florida on Wednesday morning.
Related: Insanity Wrap: Old Man Yells at Cloud… I Mean, Biden Tackles Inflation
Okay, jawboning is part of a president’s job. But what he said next was positively mystifying.
“My experts informed me the production of only about 190,000 barrels a day have been impacted by the storm thus far,” Biden said. “That’s less than 2% of the United States’ daily production impacted for a very short period of time.”
Biden calls this a “small temporary storm impact on oil production.” This is true. But the impact on supply is massive. It does very little good for oil to be sitting in tank farms or tanker trucks if they can’t reach their customers to deliver the fuel.
Phil Flynn, a Fox Business contributor and senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group, told FOX News Digital that Biden’s move is “mind-boggling” but not unexpected.
“The president’s playing politics, and there is no doubt that when a storm comes in it can impact gasoline prices — but not necessarily because the oil companies are playing with the prices,” Flynn explained. He noted that, ahead of a major storm during which residents need to evacuate, demand for gas goes through the roof in the area because people need to get out of town. That causes local prices to rise.
Supply and demand is not that hard a concept to grasp. Unless you’ve been fed left-wing propaganda for a couple of decades and you’re a Democratic politician needing a scapegoat.
BIDEN: COMPANIES RUNNING GAS STATIONS NEED TO BRING DOWN PRICE OF GASOLINE AT THE PUMP “NOW”
He seriously has no idea how anything works
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 26, 2022
Once again, Joe Biden is demanding energy companies lower the price of gas.
How does Biden not understand his decision to cancel new oil and gas leases has caused prices at the pump to increase?
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) September 27, 2022
“Once again, here’s the Biden administration falsely accusing the U.S. energy companies of profiteering, which is in their playbook,” Flynn said. “It shows that they have either a total misunderstanding or a total disrespect for the industry.”
The energy industry pushed back against Biden’s comments Wednesday, too.
“In an unfolding weather event, our industry is focused on keeping the energy market well-supplied and delivering fuels where they are needed most while ensuring the safety of our workforce,” a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement reacting to the president’s remarks.
Mr. Flynn is far more polite than I would be if I were in his shoes.
“Gasoline prices are determined by market forces — not individual companies — and claims that the price at the pump is anything but a function of supply and demand are false.”
Someone should tell the old man living out his remaining years in the retirement home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that “market forces” are kind of like the tides. You can command them to go in or out, up or down, but as a force of nature, they’re not inclined to listen to doddering old fools who don’t know what they’re talking about.
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