From this standpoint, months after Biden pledged to drive down gas prices, it appears that whatever he’s been doing has been an abject failure. Across the nation, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline hit a new record high this week despite Biden’s ongoing plan to release oil from the strategic petroleum reserve and complain about Vladimir Putin.
The report on this, coming from CNN, of all places, is brutal for Biden and speaks to why Democrats seem unable to really captivate voters with the threat to Roe v. Wade:
In another blow to the US economy, prices at the pump soared to fresh record highs.
The national average price for regular gasoline climbed more than four cents on Tuesday to $4.37 a gallon, according to AAA. That takes out the prior record of $4.33 set on March 11.
The gas spike — prices are up 17 cents in the past week alone — will only add to inflationary pressures that have raised recession fears, rocked financial markets and soured Americans’ views on the economy.
The national average dipped to as low as $4.07 a gallon in April after the record-setting release of oil from emergency reserves and as oil prices cooled off. But as industry analysts predicted at the time, that relief proved to be short-lived and minor.
It’s expected that prices will increase in the spring and summer months as driving surges, that’s a normal pattern. The problem for Biden is that prices were already at record highs in March. Any uptick in demand will send prices soaring toward an average of $5.00 per gallon nationwide.
The next few weeks could get dicey as the country heads toward Memorial Day weekend:
Some analysts fear even higher prices are coming. Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN on Sunday he expects retail prices will jump to $4.50 a gallon in the next week to 10 days.
If prices top $4.50 a gallon on average, Biden will face more increased pressure to ease off his anti-oil agenda and perhaps even be moved to approve a pipeline or two. Of course, those things wouldn’t help in the short term but would at least signal that this administration isn’t so brain dead that it continues to ignore a glaring problem punching millions of working-class voters in the face every week.
Biden continuing to blame everything except his own policies is an embarrassment. Blaming Putin can only go so far. The “green agenda” this White House signed on to meant an immediate blow to the oil and gas industry, and a long-term problem for the price of gas as supply tightens and demand increases.
The end result is that this White House seems so entirely entrenched and determined to ignore the real “checkbook issues” voters care about, they’re helping to cement expected losses for Democrats this fall with no foreseeable change in course.
