Democrats in Congress support high gas prices
Despite reassurances from the White House that it is doing nothing to discourage oil companies from opening new drill sites, President Joe Biden's allies in Congress just months ago pressured oil executives to decrease outputs because of climate change, raising questions about the Democratic Party's strategy to lower prices for consumers.
In late October, for example, the House Oversight and Reform Committee called in the CEOs of Exxon, BP, Shell, and Chevron to explain what steps they are taking to produce less oil and gas, with Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga.) alleging that "the world can't wait" any longer. At the time, gas prices were hovering around a 10-year high.
The hearing has gained new relevance as a global gas shortage has pushed prices to an all-time high. Prices are rising even more due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with no sign of falling after Biden's announcement that the United States will no longer accept Russian oil imports. Those facts have left Democrats scrambling for a solution before the November midterms as Republicans demand that the White House encourage domestic oil drilling operations.
The president said on Tuesday that his administration's policies are not "holding back domestic energy production," echoing comments from Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who said that "federal policies are not limiting the supplies of oil and gas" before mentioning the thousands of unused pre-approved oil and gas drilling leases.
"You can draw a direct line from how the Democrats marauded energy production yesterday to the unprecedented pain Americans are feeling at the pump today," said CounterPoint Strategies president Jim McCarthy, a policy adviser for leading energy companies.
Some Democrats, such as Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), have demanded that domestic oil companies dramatically curtail their domestic operations. At the same time, Khanna has called for the United States to end its dependency on oil imports from countries such as Russia.
In one exchange during the October hearing, Khanna pressed Shell president Gretchen Watkins on whether she agreed that "under the Paris agreement that … we need to have oil and gas production declining every year." After she answered that the company believes "that hydrocarbon demand needs to reduce if we're going to get to net zero [emissions] by 2050," Khanna demanded to know whether Shell will decrease its production by 2 percent each year, a figure initially offered by the company in 2019.
"This is what happens when left-wing Democrat fantasies meet reality. Khanna and other Democrats spent most of the fall trying to strangle the life out of oil and gas companies and are now feigning surprise and evading responsibility at the outcome," said McCarthy.
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It is a Democrat policy to restrict the production of oil and gas because of their climate change fantasies. Now that the reality of what restriction the supply does to the price of gas and the resulting political consequences they are squirming trying to avoid responsibility for what they did.
The President is lying when he says they are not holding back production. He should be called on that lie and pay the political consequences for his restrictions on drilling at the polls this year.
See, also:
Biden adviser: Drilling more oil won't affect its price, or something
They are so clueless about how the supply of a commodity impacts the price.
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