https://twitter.com/JV3MRC/status/1572403363630948352
PolitiFact had the audacity to argue like President Joe Biden’s eco-extremist policies didn’t really have anything to do with America’s energy inflation crisis, continuing to prove why its worthless so-called “fact-checks” belong in the trash bin.
The Facebook fact-checker seethed at Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) for daring to tweet in August: “Democrats’ radical green energy policies caused record gas prices. They want to fundamentally transform our economy.” PolitiFact rebuked Johnson for his wrongthink and falsely stated: “Green energy policies didn’t cause record prices at gasoline pumps” and suggested Johnson said this, of course, simply because he was “locked in a tight re-election battle.”
JunkScience.com founder Steve Milloy repudiated the so-called fact-checker in exclusive comments to MRC Business: “The notion that anyone but Biden is responsible for high gas prices has no basis in fact.” Climate Depot founder and “The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown” author Marc Morano gave a blunt assessment of PolitiFact’s gaslighting: “It’s time to rename these ‘Fact Checks’ for what they truly are, agenda-driven ‘opinion checks’ and nothing more.’”
PolitiFact tried to pin blame on the COVID-19 pandemic, “because in the early days, production dipped because no one was driving. But as demand rose, supply wasn’t able to keep up, meaning higher prices at the pump.”
But as Milloy pointed out, “gas prices increased during COVID … because the price of oil went negative at the beginning of COVID. So that’s a pretty stupid argument.” Morano also retorted that “Biden’s policies have helped defund and spook energy projects and markets into a retracted state which created shortages leading to massive price hikes. The price of gas began to increase in anticipation of Biden’s anti-energy policies just before his inauguration in January 2021.” Morano proceeded to toss facts at the ironically dubbed PolitiFact: “Since day one as President, Biden has waged a full-scale slaughter on American energy and particularly gas production.”
Milloy argued that Biden’s anti-fossil fuel policies “cut oil and gas leasing on federal lands, made existing drilling and transporting more expensive and precarious, and scared investors and companies from new projects.” In fact, PolitiFact conceded a very crucial point that it chose to bury in the 32nd paragraph that ended up undercutting its repudiation of Johnson: “[American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers director of issue communications Ericka] Perryman … said policies can affect gasoline prices.” Perryman reportedly said that in “[i]n each of the four categories reflected in prices at the pump — the cost of crude oil, the cost of refining, distribution and marketing costs, and federal and state taxes — policy does make a difference.’”
Then PolitiFact tried to cover itself by inserting context into Johnson’s tweet that didn’t exist: “So, as we noted previously, policy can play a role in gas prices — but it hardly is the only driver, or the sole one as Johnson suggests.” Johnson’s tweet never suggested that the green policies were the “only driver.” PolitiFact literally just made that up. PolitiFact further hedged by saying Biden’s policies like halting drilling on public lands “may have had a small impact on gasoline prices.” But even this spin was blatantly dishonest.
Morano outlined why the impact is not as “small” as PolitiFact is suggesting: “Biden’s goal, which he achieved, was to make it more difficult to finance, drill, refine and distribute American energy.” PolitiFact even admitted that there was “little doubt” about Democrats’ intentions to overhaul American energy into a green utopia. But contrary to PolitiFact, Morano stated that “[t]he blame can be squarely placed upon Biden’s energy policies.”
PolitiFact also adopted the “Putin’s Price Hike” fallacy and placed the burden of blame on the War in Ukraine: “Although consumers were already facing higher gas prices, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions forced prices even higher.” Milloy wasn’t buying that either, and rebuked that “If you throw in that Putin invaded Ukraine because Biden is weak, then Biden owns basically 100% of the gas price spike.”
