Three things Biden has done that increased gas prices
Washington Examiner By
Brad Polumbo 6/18/22
Gas prices started rising long before the invasion, and the president still has direct responsibility for how his policies have contributed to this problem. Here are three specific things Biden has done that have led to increased gas prices.
1. Canceling drilling leases and limiting domestic production
Biden has taken too many steps to count to limit domestic production. These include
halting federal permits for oil and gas drilling and leasing shortly after taking office and
blocking drilling in a major oil-rich Alaskan region. The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Ben Lieberman said. “I am hearing from drillers that they are having a very hard time getting the approvals they need from the EPA and other agencies to produce on existing wells, and of course, new federal leasing has come to a halt,” Lieberman added. It’s basic economics that when the government throttles future supply in an industry, that will lead to higher prices now and in the future. Biden was warned by many critics at the time that this would happen, but he proceeded anyway.
2. Choking regulations that impose big costs and lead to higher prices
When businesses’ costs rise, that puts upward pressure on the prices they charge consumers. The Biden administration has both proposed and implemented a
wide array of regulations on the energy sector, inflicting billions in direct financial costs and incalculable indirect compliance costs — plus further harming expectations for the future. “The regulatory chokehold imposed by the Biden administration on oil production has drastically raised gas prices, hurting lower-income people the most,” said conservative economist Vance Ginn. “This is yet another example of the high cost of big-government environmentalism when the better approach is to remove government barriers so that free markets can better let people adapt to changes in the environment at a much lower cost,”.
3. Anti-energy rhetoric that discourages investment
Rhetoric matters. While words don’t
literally do anything to change gas prices, the signals coming from policymakers absolutely do affect the long-term investment decisions businesses make. And as a presidential candidate, Biden sent very negative messages about what his leadership would mean for the gas industry. As Americans for Tax Reform
pointed out, Biden said during a campaign stop: “We are going to get rid of fossil fuels. We’re going to phase out fossil fuels.” Then, upon taking office, the president followed these words with actions such as canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, blocking leases, restricting imports, and pursuing regulations. In general, Biden’s open hostility toward the oil and gas industry has almost certainly curbed investment into production that otherwise would’ve occurred.