An image of the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline that carries oil from the northern part of Alaska all the way to Valdez. kyletperry/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Biden throws gas on inflation fire

Washington Examiner September 08, 07:05 AM September 08, 07:08 AM Video Embed

A president concerned about economic well-being in the nation he leads would look for ways to reduce the price of gasoline as both Saudi Arabia and Russia announced extended cuts to oil production this week.

But President Joe Biden doesn’t care about that. He is bought and paid for by environmental radicals such as California billionaire Tom Steyer, who, coincidentally, owns the Lake Tahoe cabin at which Biden just spent a week vacationing. That is why Biden officials announced this week that they intend to cancel oil leases on land estimated to contain 11 billion barrels of oil.

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“My administration is canceling all remaining oil and gas leases issued under the last administration in the Arctic Refuge,” Biden posted to X on Wednesday. “And there is more to do.”

That “more” is ominous. Biden has been smashing mineral development, putting millions of acres of land off-limits for exploitation from Arizona to Minnesota, New Mexico to Utah.

As a direct result of these barriers to economic development, working people will not only have to pay higher prices for energy derived from oil and gas, but the electric vehicles that Biden wants to force consumers to buy will be more expensive thanks to higher prices for nickel and cobalt.

Asked about rising gas prices at the White House press briefing Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that “from last summer to this summer,” gas prices are $1.20 lower. That is technically true. Thanks to a huge price spike last June, the average price of gas last summer was above what it was on average this summer.

But that doesn’t help the fact that now the price of oil is rising, and an average gallon of gas costs more today ($3.80) than it did a year ago ($3.75). With inflation rising again, the last thing people need is rising gas prices to make it worse.

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The BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — announced last week that they will add Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to their club. With these additions, BRICS nations will double their share of worldwide oil production from 20% to 42%.

The answer to this international economic threat is more domestic energy production, not less. Cutting our own capacity to produce oil as our enemies add to theirs is bad not just for pocketbooks now, but also makes our nation less secure in the future.

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