Don’t look now, but gas prices are exploding into new record highs nationwide as the country begins looking toward the summer travel season and long Memorial Day weekend. The average cost for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline reached a milestone on Tuesday with the average now over $4 per gallon in all 50 states.
Demand always increases in the summer months with vacations and travel. As a result, the problem is only expected to get worse, and Biden’s actions will only amplify the costs.
For everything that the Biden administration claims it’s doing to mitigate gas prices, nothing is having any meaningful effect as transportation costs continue to eat the economy and tear into household budgets:
The US set a new record for gas prices this week when the average cost at the pumps topped $4 a gallon in all 50 states for the first time ever.
The milestone was met Tuesday after Georgia, Kansas and Oklahoma became the last three states to surpass the $4 per gallon mark, according to a new report from AAA auto club.
The national average reached $4.52 a gallon, up 44 cents from a month ago and nearly $1.50 from a year ago. The most expensive prices are at California gas stations, which sell regular gas at a whopping $6.02 a gallon on average, according to AAA data.
New Yorkers are also draining their wallets at the pump. The statewide average rose nearly a whole quarter in just a week to about $4.81 per gallon for regular.
The skyrocketing prices — which are expected to get worse as the summer approaches — are due primarily to the high cost of crude oil, which is hovering near $110 a barrel, according to the AAA report.
Every part of the economy is touched by the price of fuel. Goods and products must be moved around the country, and the price of energy will eat into profits causing higher costs for end consumers. With household products rising far higher than the 8% record inflation, the problem is only getting worse.
Flashback a few days earlier this week and what happened? President Biden, despite promises to help ease pain at the pump, plans to immediately begin canceling federal oil leases:
On Wednesday, the Department of the Interior withdrew drilling leases for more than 1 million acres in Alaska’s Cook Inlet and two areas in the Gulf of Mexico. It blamed a “lack of industry interest” in the Alaska site and “conflicting court rulings” on the Gulf sites.
Fact is, Biden has sent a powerful message to oil and gas producers: He’s going to do everything in his power to put them out of business. “Kiddo,” he told an activist on the campaign trail in 2019, “look in my eyes. I guarantee you, I guarantee you we are going to end fossil fuel.”
Sure enough, he halted federal lease sales the moment he took office. He also canceled the Keystone pipeline, pushed for companies to address the cost of climate change and moved to dry up their access to capital. He’s also failed to issue a new five-year offshore-leasing plan, though the current one expires next month.
There is no excuse for these moves and no way to explain this course of action other than a desire to destroy the American energy market and directly impact citizens. If the goal is to make electric vehicles seem cheaper by driving up the cost of gasoline, this administration is succeeding.
The “blame Putin” line can only go so far and fewer Americans seem to be buying it, especially as Biden moves to curtail domestic production amid surging demand and shrinking global supply.
The collateral damage in the meantime is every American that must put gas in their car on the way to school and work. Survey after survey, voters say Biden is not focused on the issues that matter, and the price of gasoline is continuing to draw direct parallels between the Biden administration and the Carter administration. Welcome to the “Biden malaise.”
Things are so bad that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is talking about a price cap on gas, a move that would inevitably create shortages and rationing.
Inflation is still killing the economy and destroying any gains that most household budgets would be making if not for Biden’s reckless and disastrous presidency.
Democrats will be in for a rout in November not seen since 1994 if this trend continues, and with Biden at the helm, that outcome seems to be the most likely result.
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