Tag Archives: energy prices in America

More Pinocchios For The White House

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On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the Biden administration’s claim that the biggest driver of American inflation in the war in Ukraine. It is interesting that this claim is coming out as many economists believe that the economic growth numbers that will come out at the end of this month will show that America is in a recession according to the classical definition of the word recession.

The article notes:

Inflation was high and rising long before the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.6 percent in May of 2021 after rising 0.8 percent in April., On an annual basis, prices were up 5.0 percent, the largest 12-month increase since a 5.4-percent increase for the period ending August 2008.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was 3.8 percent over the previous 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1992.

The article concludes:

The biggest factor in the rise of energy prices has been increased global demand and a lack of capital investment. The latter was caused, in part, by ESG investing, Biden’s promise to end fossil fuels, and regulators discouraging fossil fuel production.

Yet inflation is still very high even with energy excluded. Absent energy, the CPI is up 6.6 percent year over year and rose 0.7 percent in May from April. This demonstrates that Putin has very little to do with the bulk of U.S. inflation.

People who normally invest in finding oil are being very cautious right now. Banks have slowed lending to oil companies for exploration because the government is not allowing the exploration needed to keep America energy independent. The first step toward ending inflation would be open up drilling (and the necessary pipelines) to keep the income from the energy market in America. The next step would be removing at least one in three government regulations on business and people trying to start businesses. Don’t look for either solution under the Biden administration.

 

When Actions And Words Do Not Match Up

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Gasoline prices in America have risen significantly in the past eleven months. America is not longer energy independent. Partially because of the increased cost of gasoline, Americans are paying more for everything right now. President Biden has said that he is concerned. But what is he going to do about it?

The American Thinker posted an article today titled, “Joe Isuzu Biden: Concern-trolling high energy prices to voters — and working on the sly to raise them higher.”

The article reports:

Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that high energy prices, including soaring prices at the pump, are some kind of priority for him. He’s made loud noises for the cameras about a couple of piddly measures of his to cut energy costs for consumers, which would at best be temporary and at worst, useless. But out on the sly, he’s stepping up his war on Big Oil, something he doesn’t want you to know about, which will raise energy prices. He’s still Creepy Joe.

The White House has stated in a press release that President Biden is doing everything he can to lower the cost of fuel for Americans. President Biden’s actions paint a different picture.

The article includes the following:

…from Axios:

Oil and gas companies should pay more to drill on federal lands and waters, the Department of the Interior argued in a report released Friday, saying that the current rates were “outdated.”

Driving the news: The Department of Interior report said that the federal government’s oil and gas leasing and permitting program “fails to provide a fair return to taxpayers, even before factoring in the resulting climate-related costs that must be borne by taxpayers.

Note “the resulting climate-related costs that must be borne by taxpayers.” Climate change is not proven science. Why should the taxpayers be forced to pick up the tab for a theory?

The article continues:

Axios yaks a lot about the federal rate being lower than some private rates, but forgets that much of federal land for lease is utterly undeveloped, with zero roads, zero electricity, zero satellite transmission, zero internet, zero water, the works. The other thing is that many of these unexplored federal lands are pretty speculative. A rate would be high and would find a buyer were an oil company to be fairly sure it would get a good return on its investment, meaning, it knew the oil was there and waiting. With many federal lands, that’s pretty speculative, which would explain low rates.

The report cited was released on the Friday after Thanksgiving, a classic ‘Friday night news dump’ as they say, done with hopes that voters would not notice. An analyst cited by Axios noticed, however:

    • “This approach could still significantly curtail future federal oil and gas production activity while remaining consistent with existing laws,” a note from research firm ClearView Energy Partners said.

The article concludes:

Biden is saying one thing, and doing another. Anyone with a brain can see that taxing energy companies at higher rates is going to have fewer companies taking chances. Anyone with a lick of common sense can surmise that shutting down pipelines is going to mean less energy and higher prices at the pump. Joe is hoping you don’t see that as he throws out his shiny strategic reserve bauble to distract you. Anyone with any degree of mental sharpness can see that Joe Isuzu is a three-card monte operator telling voters the sky is green and hoping they’ll be easy marks for it, believing him against the evidence of their own eyes. He seems to think we’re stupid.

Please follow the link to the article for further details. The difference between what the Biden administration is doing and what the Biden administration says it is doing is the reason people hate politicians.

Spin Instead Of Solutions

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I am not a big fan of the current gasoline prices. I doubt anyone is. How in the world did we go from being energy independent to sky-high gasoline prices? Well, it might have started with the shutdown of the Keystone XL Pipeline on day one of the Biden administration.

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about the Biden administration’s current excuse for high gasoline prices.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that gas prices have skyrocketed due to Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refusing to “pump more oil.”

Biden delivered his remarks during the United Nations climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, where he was asked to comment on when Americans could expect to see everyday prices come down, including those of gas.

When America was energy independent, we didn’t have to worry about the output of Russia or OPEC.

The article notes:

Despite his decisions to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and impose a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits for U.S. lands and waters, the president has accused OPEC of being unwilling to significantly ramp up their production of oil to combat rising gasoline prices.

“[T]he idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not right,” Biden said Sunday at the G20 summit.

Many OPEC members have shunned Biden’s pleas, arguing that they shouldn’t produce oil at a faster rate due to the uncertainties associated with the pandemic, according to Al Jazeera.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report mid-October, forecasting that American households could see their energy expenditures go up as high as 54% compared to the winter of 2021.

Gasoline prices are not going down until American voters wake up and remove the current administration (and their congressional allies) from power. We can begin in 2022 by voting for conservatives for Congress and continue by re-electing President Trump in 2024. If you want to see gasoline prices go back down, that is the solution.