Energy
8 ways the Biden / Harris government made gasoline prices higher
From Energy Talking Points
By Alex Epstein |
Any politician who supports the “net zero” agenda is working to make gasoline prices much higher
This is Part 1 of a 4 part feature where I cover 4 of the top energy issues being discussed this summer
- Every politician will claim this summer that they’re working to make gasoline prices lower, because they know that’s what voters want to hear.
But the many politicians that support “net zero by 2050” are working to make gasoline prices higher.
- For the US to become anywhere near “net zero by 2050,” gasoline use needs to be virtually eliminated.¹
- Since Americans left to their own free will choose to use a lot of gasoline, the only way for “net zero” politicians to eliminate gasoline is to make it unaffordable or illegal.
Low gasoline prices are totally incompatible with “net zero.”
- The Biden-Harris administration knows that all fossil fuels, including gasoline, need to be far more expensive for them to pursue “net zero.” That’s why the EPA set a rising “social cost of carbon” starting at $190/ton—the equivalent of adding $1.50 a gallon to gasoline prices!²
- From Day 1, President Biden has openly supported the destruction of the fossil fuel industry, from his 2019 campaign promise of “I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuel” to his 2021 executive order declaring that America will be “net zero emissions economy-wide” by 2050.³
- Kamala Harris has, unfortunately, been even more supportive of the “net zero” agenda and therefore higher gasoline prices. In 2020 she supported a fracking ban, which would have destroyed 60% of US oil production. And she cosponsored the fossil fuel-destroying Green New Deal.⁴
- Of course, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, like all politicians, claim to be for lower gasoline prices. But because their real priority is the “net zero” agenda, in practice they are doing everything they can to raise prices.
-
Here are 8 specific actions they’ve taken.
- Biden Gas Gouging Policy #1
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by taking a “whole-of-government” approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
. This entails reducing oil investment, production, refining, and transport, all of which serves to increase gas prices.⁵
 |
- Biden Gas Gouging Policy #2
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by expanding the anti-fossil-fuel ESG divestment movement
. ESG contributed to a 50% decline in oil and gas exploration investments from 2011-2021, resulting in artificially higher prices. Biden is making it worse.The ESG movement is anti-energy, anti-development, and anti-America
·January 6, 2022
ESG poses as a moral and financially savvy movement. In reality it is an immoral and financially ruinous movement that is destroying the free world’s ability to produce low-cost, reliable energy. This prevents poor countries from developing and threatens America’s security. Read full story - Biden Gas Gouging Policy #3
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices via “climate disclosure rules,”
an oil and gas investment-slashing measure that coerces companies into spouting anti-fossil-fuel propaganda and committing to anti-fossil-fuel plans—plans that will raise gas prices.The “climate disclosure” fraud
·Mar 16
Congress won’t support Biden’s anti-fossil-fuel agenda. Read full story
- Biden Gas Gouging Policy #4
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by issuing a moratorium on oil and gas leases on federal lands, stunting oil and gas production and investment
. When it’s harder to produce and invest in oil, gasoline gets more expensive.⁶
 |
- Biden Gas Gouging Policy #5
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by hiking the royalty rate for new oil leases by 50%
. This is money the government gets from the industry on top of taxes. And it discourages oil investments, meaning less production meaning higher gas prices.⁷
- Biden Gas Gouging Policy #6
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by restricting oil and gas leasing on nearly 50% of Alaska’s vast petroleum reserve
. This is a crippling blow to Alaska’s oil and gas industry. Less Alaskan oil means higher gas prices.⁸
- Biden Gas Gouging Policy #7
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by threatening to stop oil and gas mergers
. Mergers, which increase efficiency, benefit domestic production and lower prices. Blocking mergers raises oil prices long-term, which means higher gas prices.Why government should leave oil and gas mergers alone
·Jun 3
Myth: Oil and gas mergers are bad for America because they make oil more expensive. Read full story - Biden Gas Gouging Policy #8
Biden has worked to increase gasoline prices by cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline
. This prevented Canada from using its vast oil deposits to their full potential—meaning lower global supply and higher prices for oil and gasoline.⁹
- Joe Biden should level with the American people and make clear that his agenda is to increase gasoline prices—much like Obama’s infamous admission that “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” under his energy plan.
Or he should apologize and embrace energy freedom.¹⁰
“Energy Talking Points by Alex Epstein” is my free Substack newsletter designed to give as many people as possible access to concise, powerful, well-referenced talking points on the latest energy, environmental, and climate issues from a pro-human, pro-energy perspective.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol in July that he was considering cancelling America’s membership in and funding of its activities due to its increasingly political nature.
Specifically, Wright pointed to the agency’s modeling methods used to compile its various reports and projections, which the Secretary and many others believe have trended more into the realm of advocacy than fact-based analysis in recent years.
That trend has long been clear and is a direct result of an intentional shift in the IEA’s mission that evolved in the months during and following the COVID pandemic. In 2022, the agency’s board of governors reinforced this changed mission away from the analysis of real energy-related data and policies to one of producing reports to support and “guide countries as they build net-zero emission energy systems to comply with internationally agreed climate goals” consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2016.
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One step Birol and his team took to incorporate its new role as cheerleader for an energy transition that isn’t actually happening was to eliminate the “current policies” modeling scenario which had long formed the base case for its periodic projections. That sterile analysis of the facts on the ground was replaced it with a more aspirational set of assumptions based on the announced policy intentions of governments around the world. Using this new method based more on hope and dreams than facts on the ground unsurprisingly led the IEA to begin famously predicting a peak in global oil demand by 2029, something no one else sees coming.
Those projections have helped promote the belief among policymakers and investors that a high percentage of current oil company reserves would wind up becoming stranded assets, thus artificially – and many would contend falsely – deflating the value of their company stocks. This unfounded belief has also helped discourage banks from allocating capital to funding exploration for additional oil reserves that the world will almost certainly require in the decades to come.
Secretary Wright, in his role as leading energy policymaker for an administration more focused on dealing with the realities of America’s energy security needs than the fever dreams of the far-left climate alarm lobby, determined that investing millions of taxpayer dollars in IEA’s advocacy efforts each year was a poor use of his department’s budget. So, in an interview with Bloomberg in July, Wright said, “We will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA operates, or we will withdraw,” adding that his “strong preference is to reform it.”
Lo and behold, less than two months later, Javier Blas says in a September 10 Bloomberg op/ed headlined “The Myth of Peak Fossil Fuel Demand is Crumbling,” that the IEA will reincorporate its “current policies” scenario in its upcoming annual report. Blas notes that, “the annual report being prepared by the International Energy Agency… shows the alternative — decades more of robust fossil-fuel use, with oil and gas demand growing over the next 25 years — isn’t just possible but probable.”
On his X account, Blas posted a chart showing that, instead of projecting a “peak” of crude oil demand prior to 2030, IEA’s “current policies” scenario will be more in line with recent projections by both OPEC and ExxonMobil showing crude demand continuing to rise through the year 2050 and beyond.
Whether that is a concession to Secretary Wright’s concerns or to simple reality on the ground is not clear. Regardless, it is without question a clear about-face which hopefully signals a return by the IEA to its original mission to serve as a reliable analyst and producer of fact-based information about the global energy situation.
The global community has no shortage of well-funded advocates for the aspirational goals of the climate alarmist community. If this pending return to reality by the IEA in its upcoming annual report signals an end to its efforts to be included among that crowded field, that will be a win for everyone, regardless of the motivations behind it.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Audrey Streb
The Trump administration is rolling back President Joe Biden’s restrictions on oil and gas, planning 21 lease sales in 2025 — a sharp contrast to Biden’s first year, which saw none.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have already held 11 lease sales under Trump generating over $110 million for Americans, and plan to host 10 more in 2025, the agency told the Daily Caller News Foundation. While the Biden administration imposed a sweeping offshore drilling ban and greenlit a record-low offshore oil and gas leasing schedule, the Trump administration is working to reopen development on federal lands and waters.
“President Donald Trump has revived American energy. While the Biden administration left our energy resources to waste at the cost of taxpayers, Americans can feel relief knowing that they now have an administration laser focused on unleashing our domestic energy sources, lowering costs, and securing a more affordable and reliable energy future,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the DCNF. “The number of new oil and gas lease sales simply speak for themselves.”
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has reported 3,608 new oil and gas permits in Trump’s second term thus far, compared to 2,528 permits during the Biden administration, according to the DOI. Trump and the DOI have approved 43% more federal drilling permits than his predecessors had at the same point in their presidencies, according to the agency.
The DOI has also opened more than 450,000 acres of federal land for potential energy development, and the DOI and BLM are set to approve more drilling permits than any other fiscal year in the past 15 years, the agency said.
On his first day back in the Oval Office, Trump signed an executive order to “unleash American energy” and declared a national energy emergency. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) further directed the DOI to open more domestic energy exploration opportunities, ordering the agency to “immediately resume onshore quarterly lease sales in specified states.”
Trump has emphasized bolstering conventional resources, which stands in contrast to Biden’s stifling of the oil and gas industry, as he froze liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, blocked the major Keystone XL pipeline and halted BLM lease approvals on his first day as president. Biden instead championed a green energy agenda, pushing for major wind and solar projects through billions in subsidies, loans and grants.
Notably, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) previously confirmed to the DCNF that the Biden administration failed to adequately review the environmental impacts of certain offshore wind projects before approving them. The Trump administration has cracked down on offshore wind, halting many major projects and reviewing several more, with Burgum arguing that the energy resource the Biden administration favored is “not reliable enough” at an event on Sept. 10.
Additionally, gasoline prices have been dropping nationally in recent months, with costs hitting four-year lows headed into summer and Labor Day weekend, according to GasBuddy and the American Automobile Association. The average retail price for gasoline is projected to keep dropping due to falling oil prices, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
“[Oil] prices are not set by current supplies. They’re set by future expectations,” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, told the DCNF previously. “President Donald Trump is sending signals that the oil industry here is going to be very vibrant. He’s shrinking permitting time for fossil fuel projects, so expectations for fossil fuel supply in the United States are great.”
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