The Biden administration is deliberately driving up the cost of gas

 Washington Examiner:

Oil and gas industry players say that Biden administration policies have tied their hands, preventing them from boosting production and easing price pressures as the nation faces some of the highest costs in years heading into the winter holidays.

Some oil and gas producers say the Biden administration is directly preventing them from drilling more through regulation.

Others say the administration is indirectly limiting production by signaling to potential investors that oil and gas will be penalized in the future.

"You have some producers who are struggling who say, 'Well, I'd love to ramp up production, but I can't because I'm a federal permittee, and I have to wait for the federal agency to approve my permits,' versus a small operator who maybe operates entirely on private lands, but he is constrained by the capital markets," said Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, which represents multiple state-based trade associations and their mostly independent producer members.

While overall permitting is up this year over 2020, the pace at which the Bureau of Land Management has approved applications for permits to drill on existing federal land leases slowed significantly throughout the summer in what industry groups say is a reflection of the administration's priority of restricting oil and gas production.

The bureau approved 671 permit applications in April, a number that progressively dropped each month through August, which saw 171 approvals, or just over 25% of April's total.

"We've got plenty of product, we got plenty of resource," Stewart said. "Getting to it and getting it to market is another thing."

...

This is a deliberate policy of the Biden administration to make people pay more at the pump so they will accept the green energy crap he is pushing.  It is impacting not only commuters but also trucking of goods to market and running farm and ranch equipment of food producers.  It is hitting rural residents especially hard since they have to drive long distances to stores.  Blaming OPEC for the price increases is an irresponsible dodge.  If Biden were not blocking domestic production we would not be buying oil from OPEC.  That is just another aspect of the Biden politics of fraud.

See, also:

Biden Admin Addresses Fuel Shortages by Banning New Oil, Gas Leases on NM Federal Land