US President Joe Biden.
Courtesy of Gage Skidmore
I don’t normally do political posts, but there are times when the rhetoric becomes so outrageous that it cannot go unchallenged. We are currently experiencing historic increases in oil and gasoline prices, not only in the United States, but around the world. And fueled by these increases, inflation is also on a tear, reaching 40-year highs.
Ever wonder why? President Biden would have us believe it is due to Putin’s war in the Ukraine, but a deeper dive simply does not bear this out. One of Biden’s first actions once taking office was to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought millions of barrels of oil to US refineries from Canada. In further executive action, he shut down oil and gas development on many federal lands and curtailed offshore drilling for oil.
When asked for the reasons behind gasoline prices and inflation, he has blamed “big oil”, gasoline station owners, price-gouging shippers and others. It has nothing to do with his administration, he contends. But this is simply not true. It does not take much research to see what is really happening:
According to the website, eia.gov, US gasoline prices were averaging $2.379/gal. as President Biden took office. When Russia invaded the Ukraine prices stood at $3.530 – a 48% increase. There is no argument that prices went up even more following the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, but clearly the trend started as the President began his “clean energy” programs. And some have postulated that the increase in oil prices enabled Vladimir Putin in his illegal invasion.
But what about inflation? Now at record records, President Biden continues to push this same narrative as the reason for the rapid increases in prices in almost every area. But oil, in particular diesel fuel, is at the very heart of the US and world supply chain. Increases in oil prices are reflected in pricing of almost all goods we consume. And look at the similarity in this chart taken from data posted on the US Inflation Calculator website.
A quick glance at the above chart is all you need to see where these increases originate. The Biden war on fossil fuel, trying to change the world overnight to renewable energy, is not the answer. And how much sense does it make to say we won’t produce oil in this country because it damages the client, but we are willing to buy it from other countries, not all of which have our best interests at heart, who are damaging the climate in the same way? The only difference is the price we pay.