U.S. President Joe Biden has been stung by criticism over the rising cost of living and his response to the war in Ukraine. On March 31, Biden blamed the increased living costs on “Putin’s Price Hike.”
“Americans face rising prices at the pump because of Putin’s Price Hike,” Biden said at the White House on March 31. “Since Putin accelerated his military build-up around Ukraine, gas prices have increased by nearly a dollar per gallon.”
President Biden’s comments at the White House were made as he unveiled a plan to lower gas prices over the next six months and beyond. Biden promised a history-making release of oil from the U.S. Government stockpile lasting into 2023.
However, according to Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman, “Putin’s Price Hike” does not explain why oil and gas prices shot up ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s true that the price hikes we’ve seen, let’s say, during the last three weeks, clearly related to the big spike in oil prices that happened after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24,” he said. “But of course, we saw a lot of inflation in oil and gas prices and in other types of energy before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, before markets had priced that in. So as with many things that politicians say, Biden is partly correct, but partly not right on this one.”
The average gas price in the U.S. has been rising since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Biden and his staff have reframed the rising gas prices as the fault of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s price hike due to his decision to invade Ukraine, The Washington Post reported.
President Biden’s problem is that inflation and supply problems had already pushed the average price of a gallon of gas beyond $3. By the end of March, gas prices had risen ninety cents to an average of $4.20 per gallon, Biden said at the White House.
The President has walked the tightrope between halting the flow of money to Russia and protecting the American public. The European Union and the UK have already blocked the flow of Russian oil to its pumps. The Washington Post reports that Biden has followed suit but understands a mid-term election year is not the time to sit back and let gas prices rise out of control.
According to The National News, blaming Vladimir Putin for the rising gas prices around the U.S. was mentioned multiple times in Biden’s speech. Biden stated the U.S. would not sit back and let American families suffer because of a war waged by a dictator.
The first phase of the response of the Biden Administration is to release a record number of barrels of oil into the U.S. gas system, as outlined in President Biden’s White House speech. One million barrels of oil will be released each day for the next six months. The aim is for the U.S. to use the release of oil to provide time for oil companies to push up their production levels.
President Biden’s plan has several areas of concern, including clean energy technologies. Encouraging the use of electric vehicles and clean energy limits the impact of further conflicts among gas-producing nations. According to Biden, the White House sees limiting as a way of lowering inflation and the impact of the war in Ukraine.
The National News reports oil producers came under fire from Biden and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for their role in the rising gas prices. Biden called on Congress to pass legislation that would prevent oil producers from hoarding wells on public land across the U.S. The basic message from President Biden was to use the oil reserves available in the U.S. or lose the future rights to the wells.
“It’s a real problem for Biden because his long-term answer, which is more renewable energy to get down costs for American consumers, that is not going to happen this year,” Newman said. “And it’s not going to happen next year. I mean, it is true that as solar energy and wind and renewables do come online, they do get cheaper. But we just — there’s no way we can make that pivot fast enough to make a difference in the terms of the things that Americans care about right now, which is gas prices that are over $4.20 a barrel.”