Posted on 05/18/2022 3:11:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
The price of gas keeps rising.
"The reason for that is because of Putin's war," said President Joe Biden.
But that's impossible. Most of the price rise came before Putin attacked Ukraine.
So some politicians simply blame "corporate greed."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse accuses the oil industry of collecting "excess profit."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren even introduced a bill to ban "price gouging."
This is just economic ignorance, as my new video explains.
"If big oil could raise prices anytime they wanted and get away with it, then why were they so cheap in 2020, 2019, 2018?" asks the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Ben Lieberman.
Lieberman points out that companies are always greedy. Greed didn't just start now. They were just as greedy when gas prices fellin 2019 and early 2020.
"It all comes down to cutting back on supplies," says Lieberman.
It's not complicated. Prices change because of supply and demand.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer people drove, and demand for gasoline dropped. So did its price. Oil drillers then did less drilling. Now demand is up because people are driving again.
But it takes time for producers to adjust.
"It takes months, not days, for a company to increase production," says Biden.
I'm relieved that the president understands that, but he ignores how his own policies reduce production and raise the price of gas. He didn't mention that when he canceled a long-planned sale of offshore oil rights this week.
Activists want Biden to also kill a pipeline that would bring oil from Canada to Wisconsin. They've already delayed it five years. They delayed the Keystone Pipeline for 16 years, until Biden killed it altogether.
This is so dumb. Stopping pipelines doesn't even help the environment. Oil still gets shipped, but by truck, train and barge. That leads to more oil spills.
At least one congressman is as foolish as the activists.
Last fall, at a congressional hearing titled "Exposing Big Oil's Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action," grandstanding California Rep. Ro Khanna scolded oil executives for producing too much oil.
"Are you embarrassed as an American company that your production is going up?" Khanna said to Chevron CEO Michael Wirth.
"Demand for energy is going up in the world," Wirth responded, reasonably.
"Would you commit to reducing the production of oil?" Khanna asked ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods.
"We're committed to lowering our emissions," Woods answered.
"I'll take that as a 'no,'" sneered Khanna.
Hilariously, now that gas prices are up, Khanna goes on TV to complain that oil companies don't produce more oil. "They're still not increasing the production!" he whines.
At least one congressman is as foolish as the activists.
Last fall, at a congressional hearing titled "Exposing Big Oil's Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action," grandstanding California Rep. Ro Khanna scolded oil executives for producing too much oil.
"Are you embarrassed as an American company that your production is going up?" Khanna said to Chevron CEO Michael Wirth.
"Demand for energy is going up in the world," Wirth responded, reasonably.
"Would you commit to reducing the production of oil?" Khanna asked ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods.
"We're committed to lowering our emissions," Woods answered.
"I'll take that as a 'no,'" sneered Khanna.
Hilariously, now that gas prices are up, Khanna goes on TV to complain that oil companies don't produce more oil. "They're still not increasing the production!" he whines.
In 2015 Barack Obama asked banks to quit lending for oil exploration and production. In 2014 drillers spent 99 billion dollars. In 2020 drillers spent 40 billion dollars.
And that, Charlie Brown, is why we are running out of gasoline, deseil and Fertilizer.
Isn’t oil a traded commodity just like corn or wheat? If you want to know what the recent future price of the pump is going to be, just look at what the current price per barrel is. And that is based on its traded price.
Brandon excels at shifting blame.
But there is a silver lining here as well.
The coming midterms will be red tsunami.
It’s the exports that are draining inventories and thus driving pricing.
Has Biden/Barak closed down any drilling today?
He closed them last year, but blames others for the high gas prices.
This is a particularly compelling question if as the left would have us believe that Trump was in cahoots with big oil and to make money for them and himself would do anything to screw the American public. According to this narrative Trump would have done nothing while those evil oil companies stuck it to the people. It thus seems strange that oil prices came down in those years and we achieved energy independence for the first time in four decades.
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