The Biden administration has produced so many national disasters, from the mishandling of COVID to the calamitous Afghan pullout to the runaway spending that’s led to runaway inflation to the explosion of crime in cities across America, that it’s hard to pick its biggest blunder. But President Biden’s handling of oil production could very well be the worst.
Just look at where we are. When Biden took office — not even two years ago — oil and gas were plentiful and cheap. The United States had recently become, thanks to fracking, a net energy exporter for the first time in 50 years.
Now Democrats and the media are trying to pretend that presidents have nothing to do with the price of oil and gas. But in fact, Biden shut down drilling, shut down pipelines and, with help from the “environmental and social governance” crowd in the financial industry, shut down capital to the fossil fuel industry.
Shockingly, prices skyrocketed for gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil and natural gas, with knock-on increases in costs for food, transportation, manufacturing, chemicals and electricity. Then sanctions on Russian oil sent prices even higher, with no spare US production to pick up the slack anymore.
At first Team Biden celebrated these price increases, noting they would encourage consumers to use less energy and buy new, more efficient vehicles and appliances.
