In a tweet on July 10th, President Joe Biden put the blame on Republicans for the spike in gas prices, switching from the “Putin price hike” approach. Biden sought to place the blame on Republicans in order to build support for the midterm elections on November.
“Republicans are doing nothing but obstructing our efforts to crack down on gas-price gouging, lower food prices, lower healthcare costs, and hopefully, soon, lower your prescription drug costs,” Biden tweeted. “This is not right. And that’s why this election is going to be so darn important.”
The Biden administration has repeatedly blamed the Russian President Vladimir Putin for the rise in gas prices, alerting seven major U.S. oil companies in a recent letter that they would face a new energy tax if they did not increase domestic production. In the letter, Biden said Putin was “primarily responsible” for the “financial pain” Americans are experiencing at the gas stations.
But the initial Biden accusations against Putin and the ever-changing blame game thereafter, ring hollow as gas prices were rising long before Russia invaded Ukraine, said report.
Lawmakers urged Biden to rescind his revocation of the Keystone XL pipeline. The administration also abandoned an oil drilling project in Alaska and banned further oil and gas leases on federal lands.
Biden ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in November, 30 million barrels on March 1, and 180 million barrels on March 31, claiming that the “historic” actions would relieve pressure on the pumps.
However, new reports suggest that millions of barrels of oil released last month went to foreign countries, including China.
It is uncertain how Republicans are holding back on lowering the cost of gas, with Republicans urging the federal government to boost energy supplies by increasing domestic production in a May letter. The letter called for the U.S. to repeal federal precedent limiting fossil fuel exploration, drilling and production on federal lands and waters.
At one point, Democrat Chuck Schumer blamed then President Donald Trump on the soaring prices. Fast forward to today and gas prices are hitting record highs in some locations, but Schumer doesn’t appear to be on the same warpath against fellow Democrat, President Joe Biden.
Schumer yelled, while at an Exxon gas station on Capitol Hill: “Gas prices will roughly cancel out the 2018 consumption boost from the tax cuts… That’s right, whatever meager benefit working families may have seen from Trump’s tax scam for the rich has been wiped out by the gas prices that President Trump is responsible for.
