Prices at the pump have been climbing for some time, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine only made the situation worse. To hear congressional Republicans tell it, all roads lead back to President Joe Biden — to them, he is the main cause of expensive gasoline. HuffPost reporter Chris D'Angelo wrote a great piece that sets forth the actual facts, and he spoke to Must Reads about it.
It didn't take long for Republican politicians to start hammering President Biden for the high gas prices that we've seen, particularly in the wake of Russia's invasion. What have they been saying?
Like a choir in harmony, Republicans are calling for the Biden administration to end what they describe as a "war" on America's oil and gas sector, to "unleash" the nation's full petroleum potential and to restore the so-called energy independence that they claim the U.S. achieved under Trump. Their specific demands closely mirror those of the fossil fuel industry, while their rhetoric has featured a whole bunch of nonsense.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) slammed Biden for "ending" drilling on federal lands. In fact, federal drilling permits have increased under Biden's watch. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) declared that Biden "shut off" the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The project was never completed and never operated. And then there's Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who told Fox News that "we've seen domestic production dropping and dropping and dropping" due to Biden's policies. In reality, the U.S. produced more last year under Biden than during Trump's first year in office, and output is forecast to hit a record high in 2023.
Let's take one step back — why did the invasion spike gas prices? And what has Biden done about it?
First, it's important to note that gas prices started rising before Russia launched its war, in part due to increased demand as economies recovered from COVID-19. The conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions that the U.S. and other countries slapped on Russia, a major oil and gas producer, further disrupted the oil market amid supply shortages.
The ongoing crisis highlights just how global the energy markets are. It doesn't matter that the U.S. is the world's largest producer of oil and gas, and that Russian petroleum products have made up a small portion of total U.S. imports. The global price of crude oil largely determines the price at pumps in the U.S.
Biden has sought to lessen the impact by releasing oil from United States' strategic reserves and is facing pressure to suspend the federal gasoline tax. But his options for providing short-term relief are limited, and the Republicans who called for him to ban Russian oil imports — a move that further drove up gas prices — are the first to criticize him when prices do in fact soar.
So, aside from the crass political maneuvering, what's the long game for these Republicans hitting Biden for a "war on fossil fuels" — what policy changes are they after?
They are looking to secure more access and regulatory relief for an industry that continues to reap the benefits from the Trump administration's four-year deregulatory agenda. They want federal regulators to greenlight years of future domestic production of the very fossil fuels that are driving planetary warming, while largely ignoring scientists' warnings that the world must swiftly wean itself off of them in order to avert catastrophic climate impacts.
More broadly, the GOP campaign is clearly aimed at convincing Americans that gas prices and the conflict in Eastern Europe are entirely Biden's fault — an argument that, if successful, would certainly benefit their party in the November midterm elections.
All of this might leave you thinking, "Wow, Big Oil sure is getting a lot of free advertising from members of Congress." The reality, however, is that the industry paid big for it. After all, the loudest voices happen to be some of the largest recipients of oil industry campaign donations.
Clear up for people how the oil and gas industry is actually doing these days, amid all the unrest.
The industry is essentially on the opposite side of the coin that it was two years ago, when the pandemic tanked demand for oil and sent crude prices below $0. In recent months, the largest U.S. producers — ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — have all seen their profits skyrocket alongside energy prices.
But ballooning profits haven't translated into increased production. As NPR reported, Wall Street investors have pressured oil companies to prioritize shareholder returns over new drilling investments. A recent analysis from BailoutWatch and Friends of the Earth found that at least five top industry executives cashed out nearly $99 million worth of stock since late last month.
