This year’s annual Memorial Day Weekend ‘gasoline price outlook’ is decidedly grim.
Who’s to blame for higher energy prices?
To reach this conclusion, Politifact labored mightily to explain away the impact on prices of various policies that they acknowledge will make oil and gas more scarce and more expensive. Politifact opted to ignore Biden’s participation in the Obama Administration. So, while obliquely acknowledging that Biden’s policies would raise prices, they concluded that his actions this year could not have been felt so quickly.
The Democratic defense, echoed by the media, that energy prices could not have gone up so quickly just because of the most recent policy changes, willfully chooses to ignore that a consistent, continuing long-term consequence of “progressive” energy policies is to make it more expensive.
To be sure, it was only in January that President Biden reversed President Trump’s Keystone pipeline greenlight. However, the Bush Administration issued a permit in 2008 authorizing its construction, maintenance, and operation. Then the Obama-Biden Administration chose to stall the project for the next eight years.
Yet another way to compare the more extended consequences of Democratic energy policies is to compare Blue-state and Red-state consumer electric prices.
Climate change policies mandating the use of less reliable, more expensive renewables, higher taxes, and other regulations drive these higher prices.
The bottom line is that the sticker price for the energy policies advanced by progressives, such as President Biden, is higher — much, much higher.
[ii] https://www.foxbusiness.com/energy/gas-prices-soaring-and-could-go-even-higher-by-spring-gas-analyst
[iii]https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/05/01/maryland-baltimore-gas-prices-latest/
[iv] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/12/inflation-cpi-april-prices/
[v] https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/mar/02/are-gas-prices-going-and-it-joe-bidens-fault/
[vi] https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-lifestyle-health-coronavirus-pandemic-prices-084a908ac2850e8690a822d6c7f56301
[vii] https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/pipelines-are-safest-transportation-oil-and-gas-5716.html#.VEkKrCtdWQw
[viii] The Energy Information Administration estimates the average customer usage at 12,000 kWh