America's Talking - Episode 46: Biden administration cancels new oil leases as gas prices hit record highs

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

Join The Center Square's Executive Editor Dan McCaleb and D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper as they discuss: Biden administration cancels new oil leases as gas prices hit record highs. Senate passes Supreme Court Justice security upgrade as protests heat up. Businesses fail to find workers, and experts say federal policies have made it worse. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As anyone listening can imagine, just based on your quick summation, this has become quickly a PR nightmare for the White House. It's kind of unclear how long this was in the works, but the timing couldn't be worse. Welcome to America in Focus. I'm Cole McNeely General Manager of America's Talking Network. If you have not already, we ask you hit that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast so you don't miss any new episodes of America in Focus. Now here's your host, Dan McCaleb. Thank you, Cole. And welcome to the America in Focus podcast, powered by the Sun.

Center Square. I'm Dan McCaleb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. America in Focus is a production of America's Talking Network. You can find all of the Center Square's great podcasts at Americastalking.com. That's Americastalking.com. Joining me today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of the Center Square, fresh off his weeks-long trip to Europe. Casey, I hope you learned a little bit about Europe's geography after mixing up Sweden with Denmark a few weeks for a podcast.

Yeah, you've been sitting on that one. That's a good one. I did learn a little bit about their geography. I learned, you know, I just took a page out of the playbook of the Europeans. And, you know, they get a lot more vacation time over there. I've learned. So, yeah, weeks long, you know, we'll see.

Welcome back to America. Right. Seriously, that was a trip. It was a great trip. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. The people were, extremely friendly, a lot of history. Of course, America traces so much of its roots to Athens,

even, which is where I spent a lot of time. And so it was just cool to see the really issue called the birthplace of democracy and all the sites and eat so much good food. It was a great time. Well, it's not like you missed any news. There wasn't like a left of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling and will be weighed while you're away or anything like that. Yeah, just the biggest Supreme Court ruling and, you know, a decade. No big deal. Yeah, thanks. Yeah.

And also, our first topic, gas prices and oil leases on federal land. It's not like gas prices didn't spike to a new record high this week. Why don't we actually get serious and talk about that? As gas prices did hit new record highs this week, President Biden canceled three pending oil and gas drilling leases. So one in Alaska and two in the Gulf of Mexico. Tell us about this. This was a, as anyone listening can imagine, just based on your quick summation, this has become quickly a PR nightmare for the White House. It's, it's kind of unclear how long this was in the

works, but the timing couldn't be worse. As you said, record high gas prices, you know, and when I write about this, I always compare it to the same time last year. So, you know, the average gas price this week was about, you know, 442, you know, depending on the day, give or take a few cents. And that's up from about three. dollars per gallon the same time last year. But when it was at $3 per gallon last year, that had already been an increase. So if you compared it to, you know, this time two years ago, I mean, we're probably going to be looking at, you're going to be getting close to a $2 increase or somewhere in that, in that neighborhood. So it's been a major increase. It's come alongside, you know,

inflation, which has made the price of everything that you buy at the supermarket, everything, you know, you can imagine more expensive. Even these gas prices, you know, make goods being transported to market more expensive. So it all kind of compounds on one another. And this has been a story that we've been covering that's been hounding the Biden administration for months now. And then when it hits a new high, it comes out that the Biden administration canceled three gas leases.

And so basically what that means is they're going to be in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico opportunity for new drilling that would presumably allow more oil into the market, which would then lower prices, right? And those have all been canceled. Those have all been revoked. And so Biden took a lot of, you know, a lot of heat for this, understandably. And, you know, it's a little bit of history or backstory. When Biden first came into office, he issued an executive order that banned new oil and gas leases for drilling. And then a judge overturned that and said, you can't just ban all of this. And so now that's being fought out in the courts.

But he's clearly, you know, banned these targeted ones. And politically, he's taking a lot of shots because people are tired of paying more at the pump. And when you look at the polling, and I think we'll look at this here in a minute. But economic concerns, inflation, gas prices, that kind of things are the number one concerns for America right now, far outpacing other things like even COVID or the invasion of Ukraine. So this is top of mind for Americans. And it's really, you can say the biggest story right now. Yes, I mean, it's a matter of supply and demand, right? When demand goes up, we're heading into

summer driving season. Supplies got to go up with it. If not, prices are naturally going to go up. So when the Biden administration keeps canceling these leases, there's no way supply is going to keep pace with demand. And it's common sense. So I know Biden and his advisors are all about clean energy and whatnot. But it's also a midterm election year. It's almost like it's self-sabotage. Yeah. I mean, you imagine, if you're, Dan, if you're a House Democrat in a swings, you know, in a state that doesn't, you know, lean heavily blue, you're pulling,

your hair out right now because it seems like Biden is from your perspective is probably just submarining any chance you have of reelection that when all the polling right now shows you know big losses for Democrats and so a lot of you know especially you know House Democrats are wanting Biden to to do what he can to kind of patch things up going into November I mean we've seen that with immigration they've kind of been a little bit tougher on Title 42 and stuff like that a lot of House Democrats so you're absolutely right if you're House Democrat you're pulling your hair out right now. I'm looking at AAA's gas price website right now.

Currently, I should say that we're recording this on Friday, May 13th. On Friday, May 13th, the current average for a regular gallon of gasoline across the country is $4.43. A year ago, it was $3.2. So that is a $1.41 increase. But it's even more pronounced when you look at the price of diesel fuel, $5.50. six cents on average across the country today compared to $3.15 a year ago. And that's what's taking your goods to market right there is the diesel gas. Right.

The semi-truck drivers who deliver your goods to the grocery stores, etc. across the country. And that's what's causing a lot of the spikes in groceries, for example. Year over year, the cost of eggs are up 23%, bacon up 18%, chicken and milk, 15%. chicken and milk 15%. That's really hurting American families. And why don't we talk about this poll here a little bit that you referenced? Americans are worried about gas prices and inflation. Yeah, they're very worried.

New Rest Museum reports poll shows that only 28% of likely U.S. voters think the country is headed in the right direction, which is a slight decrease from, you know, a week ago. And the biggest reason for that, I mean, this is. This is me kind of summarizing several polls that I've read and looked at and written about. But the biggest reason for that again and again is our economic problems. So inflation, gas prices, supply chain issues. I mean, like with baby formula, we've had some reporting on that this week. All these things start to compound when you're paying more at the pump.

When you pay more to drive to the grocery store, you get there and everything's more expensive. And then the thing that you needed isn't on the shelf. it's just, you know, it's really, it's in Americans' minds. And recent Gallup polling showed that, you know, inflation is the number one concern among economic concerns. So, you know, they give Americans a whole range of concerns to pick from, and the number one is economic concerns, right? And then of the economic concerns, inflation is the biggest one.

And so, you know, we're seeing that this is top of mind, a different Rasmussen poll found that Americans are more worried about gas prices than climate change. And so, you know, in some ways, that's like a kind of a pretty political poll to ask someone, are you more worried about gas prices or climate change? But I think it shows you what it goes to your earlier point about what are House Democrats or what are, you know, Senate Democrats facing an election thinking about. Is now the time to be really pushing the climate change message or is now the time to be talking about how you're going to get gas prices down and you're going to do what it takes.

And it's really interesting because, you know, Biden seemed to understand this. When you look at what he says, what White House Press Secretary Jin Saki says, they're always talking about how Biden has done so much to lower gas prices. They point out things he's done, like allowing the use of gasoline with more ethanol in it. You know, you can think that's a good or bad idea. But at least he's doing something to address the problem, right? he released more from the go ahead this strategic petroleum reserve right but americans aren't seeing any results from any of this prices continue to go up right right and it's true it's not

fixing the problem but at least you know having some sense of a solution or trying to propose a solution i think will help them politically more than you know stopping new leases which is going to make them seem like they're the source of the problem. So, you know, there's a, I do think there's a big difference between failing to solve a problem in voters' eyes or being the cause of that problem, right? And so right now with things like this leasing issue, it's Biden, I think, is going to get blamed for causing a lot of these problems. And that's what I think voters won't tolerate.

And when you look at these polling, I mean, only. only 14% are not concerned about the rising price of energy. So pretty much all Americans are concerned about energy. We've talked so much about gas prices, but we haven't even really talked about electricity, which has also soared, you know, significantly. And so all these things add up and it's top of mind for voters. I think that, you know, it is a while until November. We still have a few months, but something's got to change or these, I do think there's going

to be a big, big shakeup in the midter. Yeah, you talk about energy. overall in places like Pennsylvania. We talked about this on the Pennsylvania In Focus podcast this week. By the way, you can get all of the Center Square's great podcast at America's Talking.com, including American Focus and Pennsylvania in Focus, which I just referenced. In Pennsylvania, they're expecting to see next month in June, home energy prices rise as much as 46 percent because of what's going on there. Anyway, America's second favorite podcast right after American Focus.

That's a good shout out, though. Appreciate that. Illinois and Focus, Washington Focus, Michigan and Focus, Wisconsin, in Focus. They're all pretty good. Let's stick with the economy, though, Casey. New survey shows that businesses are, there's still, in addition to inflation, there's still a hiring crisis going on in this company. businesses are having a hard time finding workers. What's going on there? Yeah, I mean,

and I know it feels it probably feels like we're kind of throwing so many things at the wall now, but the economy is like a really complex machine with so many interworking parts. And when one part starts to struggle, it grates and it pulls on other parts. And so these are all, you know, these are all interconnected, all interrelated. But this new report from Alignable found that 83% of restaurants cannot find enough workers. Um, overall it found that 63% of all small business employers can't find the help they need. Uh, and this has been going on for a year. So I think this really, um, hit a peak in COVID and post COVID, um, when, you know,

we covered this a lot last year on the center square.com and talked about it on this podcast, but the federal government essentially paid people not to work. Uh, and they, and they justified it with COVID and saying, you know, so many businesses, particularly restaurants were shut down. And so they paid people not to work. They created paid people per child that they have. And overall, it added up to be more than enough to live off of, especially in places with lower costs of living, you know,

anywhere that was somewhat rural or even suburban, you could live off of this, you know, these federal funds, maybe not downtown Manhattan or something. But a lot of people could just live off the government dole. Now, so a lot of those benefits have expired partially because what we found was so many people stopped working. They stopped working and why wouldn't they? You know, they could make more not working. And now, though, we found that we have it, we still haven't recovered. It's been several months. You know, the bulk of some of those benefits have really

expired. And yet here we are in May with businesses unable to hire people. Now, the inflation issue does play into this because wages have risen. And the Biden administration talks a lot about how wages have risen. And that's true. Wages have risen, but they have not risen as fast as inflation. And so, you know, they don't usually mention that when they talk about it. But it's an important piece because employers are in a tough spot where they're having to raise prices on their goods. Everything that they buy for their business is more expensive. So if you own, if you run a coffee shop, you know, your beans are more expensive. All the, you know, napkins and cups are more expensive. The machinery that you need. The equipment is more expensive. And also you can't find workers and you have to pay them more, even though all your products are more expensive. And the government made you shut down your business for, you know, a year last year. And so you see all that's, and that's why a third of small businesses have considered just shutting their doors entirely in the, you know, in the last year. But all these things are added up. But this. labor supply shortage is fascinating to me because so many people haven't gone back to work.

I mean, I don't know, you know, Dan, you know a lot about not working. I don't know what you want to weigh in your expertise on this. That's a good one. Oh, yeah. Good one in case. Well, another interesting fact from your story from this week is that there are almost double the number of job openings. Then there are people receiving unemployment benefits, 11.5 million job openings.

right now nearly two jobs for every person who's receiving unemployment benefits. Record high. It is crazy. I mean, it's a record high. In some ways, it's inexplicable. I mean, there are different things we've written about, you know, that could be causing it. Of course, the federal, you know, the federal regulations help. And, you know, I talked to an expert this week who pointed out that there's been increasing regulations for child care, daycares, that kind of thing. which have made daycares and child care more and more expensive.

And so I think, you know, what this, you know, Gretchen bawled out, the Alec, American Legislative Exchange Council, which she kind of laid out was that for a lot of people, it's pretty much going to be the same cost to have someone watch your kid or watch your children so you can go to work. And so you might as well stay home with your kids and have only one person work, right? And so a lot of people got used to staying home during the, pandemic spent a long time with their kids and it seems like at least a sizable portion of them

have decided not to go back to work and just continue saying we're home with their kids because childcare is so expensive um you know the the wage they're getting isn't going to keep hasn't kept pace with inflation anyway and so they're just going to stay home well and at this point i guess i'd like to encourage folks to get back to work the american economy needs you um but let's move off of all these economic issues, Casey, and talk about that, um, um, the leak of the Roe v. Way decision that I had to write. So I do work a little bit because you decided to take a month off. Um, every time I hear it, it gets longer.

But, um, since the leak of the decision, um, there have been protests outside Supreme Court justices homes. There have been, um, fires set at pro life, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, clinics and the Senate stepped up to address some of these protests this week, what you wrote about it at the Center Square.com. Yeah, I mean, this story is about, you know, Senate passing a bill to basically consider Supreme Court justices more along the lines of kind of an executive or just a lawmaker who requires more federal security. So, you know, the federal government is going to be giving and Hardy has begun giving a lot more security to the Supreme Court justice is out of necessity for

the very reason which you laid out, which is the protests are getting really raucous. Some of them are getting, you know, apparently dangerous. People are outside of homes. I think that's when, you know, the homes, it seems to be the bright line for a lot of people. If you want to have a protest in front of the Supreme Court, even one where you're being pretty boisterous and maybe even, I don't know, you're setting things on fire. I mean, outside is, you know, not vandalizing buildings but kind of demonstrating pretty aggressively. I think people have a pretty high tolerance for that. In some ways, it's the American way. You know, we strongly hold to right to free assembly, all that kind of things. You know, I'm at the Supreme Court all the time. Or even just walking by it.

And there's always some group out there protesting something. You know, there's always signs and picketers and people chanting. And so that's pretty common. I think Americans have really have no problem with that. And then I mean, you can celebrate it. But when you start going to people's homes and those justices start to feel threatened. I think that is the line. I mean, we would never tolerate going to a lawmaker's home or a federal judge's home to pressure them on a particular case or law. And so, you know, I don't know, Dan, I mean, we'd love to hear your forecast on this,

but I think this is, it's going to die down for a little while. But as soon as this ruling comes out, it's just going to explode again. And I think it's going to be even worse because people, you know, there's a strong, very militant strain in the far left and they really hold to this pro-choice issue pretty strongly. And so I think if this leak, you know, proves true and Roe v. Wade is overturned, which would be historic, which would be, you know, one of the biggest Supreme Court cases in years, I think we're going to see these protests really ramp up. I hope and pray no one gets hurt that the justices don't feel intimidated. We don't want, you know, any kind of thugs or violence to sway a

a court decision. We want to be made according to the Constitution, you know, reason, having looked at all the facts and making a wise decision, not influenced by any kind of thuggery. But I don't, if this is overturned, I think it is going to heat up. I just hope it doesn't get violent. Two quick thoughts. Just a reminder, if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, which it looks like it will be. It does not ban abortion. It just sends the, decision back to the states. Yes. So states that have laws in effect, allowing abortion and protecting abortion, you'll still

be able to get a legal abortion in those states. However, there are many states, red states in particular, who have passed what they call trigger laws that will go into effect if, in fact, Roe v. Wade is overturned, which would put severe restrictions on abortion. On the second, my second point is there's already federal law in a book that you can't intimidate federal judges. You can't threaten federal judges in an attempt to sway their decisions. The Biden administration, however, has come out and said it welcomes these protests at

justices' homes. So I don't know. I do worry when this decision does become official, what the reaction is going to be across the country. Yeah, I think it's an important point, important point that you may. that this just sends it back to the States. I think there's a real ignorance on what Roe v. Wade actually does. And that I think there's a lot of people who think that Roe v. Wade being overturned

makes all abortion illegal overnight. And it's just not the case. I mean, it would be comparable to something like gun laws. You know, if you want to purchase a gun in Texas where I grew up, it's a lot of different experience than if you want to purchase a gun in New York City, right? Or Chicago. So it's just or carry, open carry. I mean, it's going to vary by state.

It's up to the legislators. And if you want a different experience, you can change states. You can cross state lines. There's a lot of different things that you can do. And so it's going to send it to the states. It's not going to make things illegal overnight. And I hope this isn't too ideological or political a point. But I think that this kind of shows you the problem with federalizing a lot of these decisions.

When the federal government gets to decide, all 50 states do, then it's an all or nothing win-lose scenario. Either your team wins and you're really happy that the whole country has to do what you want or your team loses. And then you're frustrated and you're in you're panicking because you have this mentality of the federal government deciding everything. But when things are sent back to the states and states can decide based on what their voters want, what to do, it distributes the risk. It allows us, you know, the phrase it's often used of the laboratories of democracy. And we can see what works and what doesn't without federalizing everything.

But back on the protest, you're right that it is on the books not to do this, but we've seen, you know, the last five years, we've seen kind of an unprecedented. Well, I won't say unprecedented, but we've just seen a very much higher level. But from, you know, the BLM riots all over the city, you know, all over cities around the country. and January 6th, I think both sides have just seen a much higher level of demonstration, political anger, really. And so I think we're in danger of seeing something like that again here, but I hope it doesn't happen. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting and perhaps scary summer once this,

with everything going on between gas prices, inflation, this very contentious Roby Wade, hearing it will certainly be an interesting. summer. You can catch all over the updates on these news items and more at the center square.com. But we, Casey, we are out of time. Welcome back. I'm glad you decided to get back to work. But for all those listening, you can find the CenterSquares podcast at America's Talking.com. Take a look. Please subscribe. There is no cost. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKalep. We'll talk to you next week.