The national average price of gas increased to a record high for the fifth consecutive day on Friday.

Increasing two cents overnight, the most expensive average gas price ever recorded is now $4.331, a full 49 cents more than last week and 85 cents more than a month ago, according to AAA.

Friday marks the fifth day of  a five-day surge in which gas prices beat record highs not seen since 2008 when Barack Obama was president.

The White House has blamed the record-high gas prices on “Putin’s price hike.”

“It’s going to go up,” Biden noted about gas prices Tuesday. “Can’t do much right now. Russia is responsible,” he claimed.

The White House has also blamed the American oil industry for not producing enough oil to fill the void from the Ukrainian war.

“What additional permits do they need? The leases are there. The permits are there. I don’t think they need an embroidered invitation to drill. They are oil companies,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed about the feasibility of oil drilling on 9,000 private oil leases.

“The president has been clear that he believes they have the tools they need… to go get more oil here in the United States,” Psaki reiterated Friday.

But evidence does not support the White House’s claims. Bloomberg reported the cost of funding fossil fuel projects is ten percentage points higher than it was before Biden’s presidency. The costly funding has occurred because the Biden administration has successfully pressured financial institutions to reduce the international and domestic, public and private financing of American energy production on private lands.

For instance, Credit Suisse has reduced lending to the industry and plans to cut future financing of the industry by half between 2020 and 2030, Reuters reported Thursday.

The impact of Biden’s war on American energy independence is massive gas price hikes, which the administration seemingly seeks to reduce by purchasing oil from Venezuela and Iran, allies of China, and consequently friends of Russia.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø