November 9, 2021
-The Daily Wire
Nearly one dozen Senate Democrats sent a memo to President Biden on Monday urging his administration to lessen the burden of high gas prices on American drivers through whatever means available to him.
In the letter, released by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the Democrats urge Biden to explore all available options, including banning crude oil exports and opening the National Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to help lower the cost to consumers at the pump. It was also signed by Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
“According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline is the highest it has been since 2014, with an increase of more than $1 per gallon since this time last year,” the letter reads. “In our home states, high gasoline prices have placed an undue burden on families and small businesses trying to make ends meet, and have proven especially burdensome as our constituents continue to recover from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Gas prices in the last week of October reached an average price of $3.40 per gallon, more than $1.25 above the national average in October 2020. Earlier in the month, gas prices climbed to the highest average they had since October 2014, as previously reported by The Daily Wire.
The current average price sits at $3.42 per gallon, a full $1.31 more than last year, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). In a statement, the organization attributed high costs, in part, to OPEC’s decision to maintain their gradual output increase.
The senators’ letter concurred. “We share the administration’s concerns that the decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others to purposefully manipulate gas prices by constraining supply, as well as the choice of domestic leaseholders and producers to continue to export U.S. petroleum, threaten to send already record prices even higher.”
“Continued U.S. exports and overseas supply collusion could be devastating to many in our states, contributing to higher bills for American families and businesses,” it added.
The Biden administration has given no indication that it has a solution to the skyrocketing gas prices.
The president himself admitted, when asked at a CNN town hall meeting on Oct. 22, “I don’t have a near-term answer,” saying that he does not expect gas prices to begin to come down until 2022. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to name a single specific option the administration was considering to combat the gas prices during a press conference this week. And Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laughed during an interview with Bloomberg when she was asked about plans to increase U.S. oil production, saying that oil production is “controlled by a cartel [OPEC].”
Furthermore, The Daily Wire reported last week that the Biden administration was weighing whether or not to revoke the permits of the L5 pipeline, which delivers oil from Canada to the states of Michigan and Wisconsin. The Biden administration confirmed that reporting Monday.
