White House, Oil Refinery Executives Fail to Reach Plan to Lower Gas Prices

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm emerged from an emergency meeting with major oil refiners on Thursday with no plans to lower gas prices but a vague promise to keep talking, Reuters reported.

The Biden administration’s efforts to lower gas prices are hampered by the Democratic Party’s anti-fossil fuel stance. The far-left climate change activists will not tolerate an expansion of domestic oil production and myriad regulations have helped reduce refinery capacity in the U.S. and kept refiners from opening new plants.

On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden promised he would end fossil fuels. “I want you to look at my eyes. I guarantee you, I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuels,” he said in New Castle, New Hampshire.

“No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry,” Biden said a year later. “No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period,” Biden said of his energy policies if he won the presidency. “It ends.”

Biden has made good on his promise. On the first day of his presidency, Biden terminated the Keystone XL pipeline project not yet completed. Biden has also driven up private and public financing costs of oil drilling and halted drilling on public lands.

Polling by the Convention of States Action/Trafalgar Group also showed that 53 percent of voters believe Biden is trying to raise the price of gas to force citizens to use less fossil fuel.

Gas prices are currently hovering around $5 per gallon, doubling since former President Trump left office, according to AAA data.

In an effort to reduce the soaring price of gas, the president asked Congress for a 90 day gas tax holiday. Many Democrats are skeptical of that demand, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Investment bank ISI Evercore said Monday the gas tax holiday proposal is an ineffective talking point that shows the White House is out of ideas on inflation and gas prices. “Way back in February, when Democratic Senators first started floating a gas tax holiday, it was immediately clear to us that the idea was a non-starter in Congress and should be viewed primarily as a midterm talking point,” ISI Evercore said.

“This should have been a quick decision by the White House about whether this makes a good message for the midterms,” the organization said. “Taking four months to consider a policy is one thing — taking four months to decide on a talking point is another.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.