America's Talking - Gas Prices Steadily Rise, Biden Takes Fire

Episode Date: April 8, 2023

Gas prices continue to rise this week in the U.S., hitting the highest level in months. Now, the concerns and political ramifications for the Biden administration are starting to rise as well. "Gas prices are rising," said economist Stephen Moore. "Joe Biden is doing nothing except push a crazy green agenda that will make prices even higher. "If America went back to Trump's energy policies, we'd be producing 2 million barrels more a day." 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.

Hello and welcome to American Focus powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service joining beneath today, as he always does, is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Casey, we're recording this on April 6th, a Thursday, a day earlier this week. It is April, which means we're heading into spring and summer season. If you remember last year, by the time we got to June, peak driving season, gas prices reach an all-time record high of more than $5 a gallon, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline. There are concerns that, well, gas prices are currently rising again. There are concerns that they're going to continue to rise as we get closer to summer.

And there's been some discussions about President Joe Biden's energy policies and what he did last year to try and curb or to bring down those gas prices with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Tell us what's going on. Yeah, I mean, as you kind of laid out, there's a lot going on, and Americans are feeling it. You know, many of our listeners probably have already noticed this gas price increase, which is underway right now. And, you know, it is April. A lot of people may be visiting family driving a lot for this Easter weekend. And if you do, especially if you head into certain states like California, you're going to see the gas prices are starting to rise. So this is kind of a backdrop for a larger political debate over energy policy.

But, you know, gas prices have risen. And right now, they're over $3.50. Last week, they were a little over $3.40 a month ago, they were less than $3.40. So this isn't just a one or two day rise. They are steadily rising. And as we reported at the center square.com, OPEC plus, which is, you know, the international oil and gas developers that we have become increasingly beholden to as we've decreased domestic drilling, announced that they're actually cutting production pretty significantly. Now, there's some debate over how much or if or what to what degree this will raise in. energy prices, but it'll certainly cut supply, which unless some other interesting things happen

in the global markets, it means we will see big increases in gas prices coming into this summer. Now, Dan, you probably remember just last summer, we broke records at $5 per gallon for regular unletted gas. So of course, nobody wants to get back to that territory. But the stage is set to at least get near that or to start head in that direction, which, you know, as inflation looks like it's going to remain elevated, you know, now that the Federal Reserve can't raise interest rates as aggressively as it had previously wanted to because of all the banking troubles. That means, you know, inflation is going to remain higher for longer. Gas prices are starting to rise. And is it starting to feel like Groundhog Day all over again, Dan, for about this time last year?

Yeah, it's a little, it's certainly concerning. Of course, we say the national average for the price of a gallon of gasoline was more than $5 a gallon, places like where I'm at in the suburbs of Chicago, California, Washington State, Oregon State, you know, they were surpassed $7 a gallon. So some residents or some American citizens have it even worse than the average citizen does. Talk a little bit about the concerns about what Biden did last year to try and alleviate the gas price increases by essentially dumping oil stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on the market and what the concerns are about that right now. Yeah, there's a lot of concerns. You're right. Lawmakers really raised those again this week that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve may be getting

dangerously low. So most of our listeners probably know, but the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is where we keep hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in case of national emergency. That can be hurricane. Of course, that would be some kind of international conflict or war that can be, you know, different things. And it has been used for various reasons in the past. But when gas prices got really high and we were going into the midterm election, which I'm sure was a total coincidence. actually not. You know, Biden released a couple hundred million, you know, barrels during his administration to lower these prices. And it definitely, it definitely helped. You know, 200 million sounds like a lot, but in considering how much the U.S. uses in a year, it's not like enough to replace it or even get

close. But it is enough to lessen the pressure, to lower prices. And he did that. Yeah. And one of the criticisms is it was Republicans say it was politically motivated because of the timing, because it really extended just through the November election and then basically stopped pretty much very soon after that. And it left the Strategic Petroleum Reserve much lower, right, at the lowest level since 1984. So the reserves are much lower. And now, you know, you can't really, we could rely on them, but we would really be getting to a new dangerous low if he continued to pull at this rate to keep prices down. So we've kind of used our backup supply. And now prices are rising again. The international supply is being cut by OPEC plus. Of course, Biden's taking a lot of

fire for discouraging, you know, pipeline development and oil and gas. You know, Biden said in the State of the Union, something to the effect of he thinks we can replace oil and gas in about 10 years, which actually it was a real, a real moment in the State of the Union, because all the Republican lawmakers laughed audibly. And it was clipped and a little bit viral, but that he would think that we could do such an accelerated timeline, I think is really revealing when a lot of energy experts and, of course, Republican lawmakers think it's going to take a lot longer than that to really transition to renewable fuel sources. There's a lot of reasons for that. But it really doesn't. it seemed like we're ready to leave behind oil and gas in the next decade unless some

major things technology has developed and really change in the next 10 years. So the prices growing up, the international stuff doesn't look favorable. Our reserves are down. And I don't know what's going to happen, but I think prices are going to go up. And this is going to be political challenge for Biden going forward. And the Biden administration's energy policies essentially have been criticized from almost day one, you know, when he stopped the built, the construction of the Keystone pipeline. when he halted new drilling leases on federal oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands. His critics blame him for where we're at with energy prices right now.

It doesn't look like he is controlled by the progressive left. It seems like it doesn't look like they're going to change their policies during this current administration. So I think consumers should continue to expect to pay higher prices at the gas pump to heat your homes, air condition your homes this summer when we get there. but Casey, I appreciate your insight into this, but we are out of time. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at the center square.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAid. Thank you for listening.