Free Republic

...It’s easy to look at the gas pump right now and think that station owners are taking you for a ride. But the business model of gas stations is a bit counterintuitive. Most gas stations barely turn a profit on their core product — and when the price of oil goes up they may even take a loss on it. Battling small margins, cutthroat competition, and the looming threat of electric vehicles, many gas stations are more reliant than ever on secondary revenue streams.... The profit pipeline Gasoline begins its journey as crude oil, largely sourced on home soil in...

President Joe Biden demanded Wednesday that gas stations start lowering their prices, in his latest attempt to address record-high prices this summer. “To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump, this is a time of war, global peril, Ukraine,” he said. The president spoke about the record high gas prices occurring during his administration during a speech on his imitation White House set across the street. “These are not normal times. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product,” Biden said. “Do it...

Americans are more worried about inflation hurting their wallets than they should be — and they should “calm down” and “stop complaining” about it, according to a Washington Post columnist. “Overall, many Americans aren’t suffering as much as they think they are and we can think things into existence because we are unrealistically fearful of something that hasn’t happened yet,” the paper’s personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC. “We don’t know if we’re in a recession yet.” Singletary downplayed concerns about the impact of rising prices after MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing pointed out a...

On Thursday, "The View" co-host Joy Behar asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre how to convince Americans that skyrocketing inflation and gas prices were not President Biden's fault. "The case has been made that inflation is an intractable problem around the world. We talk about it here all the time, and not just in a crisis in the states but in the eyes of many voters, ‘the buck stops with the president,’ to paraphrase Harry Truman. But with the president's handling of inflation and the economy hitting lows in recent polls, how do you make the case to voters...

U.S. gas prices hit an average of $5 per gallon for the first time last week, according to AAA. Americans are having to spend more of their hard-earned money on energy. But who is really to blame? It is probably helpful to start with a breakdown of the components of the price of gas. The cost of crude oil is the biggest cost component of a gallon of gas and can skew the cost. In January, via the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the cost of crude was just over half the cost of gasoline, at 52%. In February it was...

Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered remarks on soaring gas prices from his fake White House set in the South Court Auditorium. Biden repeated the same lies in his speech and blamed Vladimir Putin for high gas prices. "Let’s remember how we got here: Putin invaded Ukraine,” said Biden. Gas prices spiked before Putin invaded Ukraine. Joe Biden scolded Republicans and said there is no way they can simultaneously blame him for high gas prices AND oppose Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. "So, for all those Republicans criticizing me for high gas prices in America, are you now saying we were wrong...

According to two sources, around the time of Russia's late February invasion of Ukraine, a cyber unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence service again conducted targeting-reconnaissance operations against a major U.S. liquefied natural gas exporter, Freeport LNG. U.S. LNG exports have long been a priority concern for Russia, viewed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a means for the United States to undercut Russia's domination of the European gas market. On June 8, Freeport LNG suffered an explosion at its liquefaction plant and export terminal on Texas's Quintana Island. The damage suffered means the facility is not expected to resume...

Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands announced plans this week to prepare to resurrect old coal plants as gas supplies dwindled. The moves came just days after Moscow reduced natural gas flows to several European countries, including Italy and Slovakia, alarming leaders who are worried about energy reserves ahead of winter. That’s not the direction in which these government wanted to move. A return to coal would controvert climate policy already in place in Amsterdam and Berlin. Some officials are concerned about the longer-term threat such a move would post to efforts to fight climate change in Europe. “We have...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not the primary driver of inflation. In a Senate Banking Committee hearing Wednesday morning, Sen Bill Hagerty (R-TN) pointed out that inflation rose from 1.4 percent in January of 2021 to seven percent by the end of the year, months before Russia invaded Ukraine. It has since risen another 1.6 percentage points. “Given how inflation has escalated over the past 18 months, would you say the war in Ukraine is the primary driver of inflation?” Hagerty asked. “No,” Powell responded. “Inflation was high. Certainly, was high before...

The federal government currently charges 18 cents in taxes per gallon of gasoline [cut] Biden's ex-boss, former President Barack Obama, called a gas tax a "gimmick" on the campaign trail back in 2008. At the time Obama said a gas tax holiday was a "gimmick" to save Americans half a tank of gas over the summer so that lawmakers could "say that they did something." There is also concern about a gas tax holiday's impact on already record-high inflation. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group that advocates for reducing the federal budget, previously argued that suspending...

Bank of America has sounded the alarm on the US economy, predicting growth will stall next year and that the likelihood of a recession will surge. In a note published on Friday — two days after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points — analysts said the Fed was too slow to aggressively tackle inflation, which is running at a 40-year high, and abruptly scrambling to get on top of it. Now the bank sees GDP growth slowing to nearly zero by the second half of 2023 because of the influence of tighter financial conditions. While the...

The White House blamed food shortages across the country on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, accusing him of “weaponizing food.” “President Putin is, no kidding, weaponizing food,” said White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby on Tuesday. “Let’s just call it what it is, he’s weaponizing food.”

If there’s a topic uppermost on most people’s minds today, it is certainly the surge in inflation over the past year. Soaring prices have affected virtually every person in the country. And Americans say they know who’s responsible: President Biden. Surprisingly, that includes more than half of all Democrats, too. May’s 8.6% annualized inflation rate, the highest in 40 years, shocked financial markets and alarmed consumers and workers alike. As we’ve been reminded over the years, inflation acts as a tax on everyone, lowering standards of living, raising costs across the board, and eroding the very foundations of a productive...

VIDEOOn "Meet The Press," Chuck Todd introduced a graph featuring gas prices over the years based on 2010 dollars. However, there was something so obvious about the graph that it practically screamed at him but poor Chuck pretended to ignore it for the sake of keeping his NBC gig.

VIDEOHigh gas prices are driving people crazy. But are they any crazier than the people who have caused the rapid rise in gas prices with their crazy leftist energy policies?

Actor Dean Norris criticized people who are complaining about soaring gas prices across the United States. The "Breaking Bad" star said current gas prices are "fair market" and urged anyone who "love[s] Capitalism" to "stfu," an acronym for shut the f--- up. "You're not getting 'robbed' at the pump," Norris wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. "You’re paying fair market price for a commodity. If you love Capitalism so much then stfu."

A man who was trying to steal gas from a parked up box truck accidentally set himself ablaze in the process as fuel prices continue to soar. The shocking incident was all caught on surveillance camera footage as the man could be seen attempting to siphon fuel from the tank of a vehicle next to which he had parked his own white pickup in Salt Lake City. Authorities believe the man was using a drill in order to access the gas tank during which a spark ignited the flammable liquid. Static electricity, or sparks caused by the friction from the...

This week, Joe Biden made a big deal out of sending a “warning letter” to U.S. refineries about their supposedly inflated profit margins this year. It was part of his strategy of attempting to blame the oil and gas industry for the high prices everyone is paying for gas, diesel, and heating oil. (At least when he’s not trying to blame Vladimir Putin.) In very short order, two associations representing different elements of the industry got together and sent a letter right back to the President. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) joined with the American Petroleum Institute (API)...

IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ExxonMobil today released the following statement in response to a letter from President Biden. We have been in regular contact with the administration to update the President and his staff on how ExxonMobil has been investing more than any other company to develop U.S. oil and gas supplies. This includes investments in the U.S. of more than $50 billion over the past five years, resulting in an almost 50% increase in our U.S. production of oil during this period. Globally, we’ve invested double what we’ve earned over the past five years -- $118 billion on new oil and...

If you think gas prices are high now, just wait. They’re going much higher, thanks to President Biden’s “irreversible” plan to eliminate fossil fuels. Truth is, your pain at the pump is being planned and executed by the White House. Over the weekend, buyers paid $5 a gallon or roughly $100 bucks to fill the tank. Gas prices have doubled since Biden took office. J.P. Morgan analysts predict $6 a gallon by August. And experts warn this crisis will continue even after Biden’s term ends because he’s dismantling fossil fuel production. When Biden was running for president, he promised to...