President Joe Biden has demanded that gas prices are lowered to lessen the impact on the public as crude oil prices continue to fall.
Biden tweeted Wednesday a chart that showed the discrepancy in oil price and gas price trends. “Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too,” Biden said. “Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it’s $4.31. Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.”
Crude oil prices have been dropping over the past week after hitting highs of over $120 a barrel in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the past few days, they’ve dipped below $100 – but, while gas prices had climbed in tandem with rising crude oil prices, they haven’t lowered at the same pace. AAA says that gas prices are still around $4.31 a gallon on average.
Oil prices are dropping, so should gas prices.
Last time oil was at $96 per barrel, gasoline was at $3.62 per gallon. Now it’s $4.31.
Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/uLNGleWBly
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 16, 2022
Biden It is echoing progressive lawmakers’ recent cries to hold oil and gas companies accountable for jacking up prices in response to the current crisis. The fossil fuel industry is “profiteering,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) wrote on Monday. “And there should be consequences for it.”
If gas prices were to stay high, CNN reportsThe average household would spend $1300 more per year on gasoline, which is $165 billion more than what consumers spent in 2019. Gas prices are currently $1.50 higher than they were pre-pandemic.
A lag between crude oil prices and gas prices is common in the oil and gas industry, experts say, and is typically called “rockets and feathers” – gas prices rocket on the way up, but fall back down like feathers.
Biden doesn’t think it should be this way.
“Try explaining how it’s just rockets and feathers to President Biden, and you’d better be ready to hear, ‘That’s a bunch of malarkey’ coming back at you,” a senior White House official said to CNN. “The president is very much within his rights to point out that if you’re going to have rockets on the way up, you need to have rockets on the way down, not feathers.”
Gas prices were already rising when the Ukraine crisis began. Inflation was high in the industry, and gas prices were already climbing. It padded its profits. Biden WarnedCompanies against raising prices in the crisis. “American oil and gas companies should not exploit this moment to hike their prices to raise profits,” Biden saidAs Russian forces began the invasion in Ukraine.
Biden has already set up oil and gas businesses on notice. In November, he ordered the Federal Trade Commission investigate whether oil companies artificially boost gas prices while using inflation to cover. A recent pollMost voters believe corporations are using the pandemic to increase profits.
Republicans I have been blaming BidenAlthough gas prices have risen, Biden has little or no control over them.
Experts sayGas prices are high because of profit-seeking. Wall Street investors Are you insisting?Despite many ongoing crises, dividends and profits remain high. High gas prices can also maintain payouts for executives and them. As customers are cheated at the gas station, the oil-and-gas industry is pushing for tax breaks and subsidies.
Last week, Democrats Legislation was introducedTo discourage profiteering, tax barrels of oil that are produced or imported by large oil companies. The bill would allow consumers to receive quarterly checks as a return of the tax revenue.
