Instead of unleashing domestic energy production to ease pain at the pump for consumers, the Biden administration has shipped 5 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve overseas, bringing it to its lowest level since 1986. In a shocking revelation, the administration admitted that it even recently sold roughly 1 million barrels from the emergency fund to a Chinese government-owned gas giant that continues to purchase Russian oil.
So President Joe Biden is literally selling our national security to our leading adversaries. His America-last, China-first policies are truly unconscionable.
Gas prices under Biden have been at historic highs, almost doubling with him at the helm. On the day he was sworn into office, the average price for a gallon of gas nationwide was approximately $2.39. As of this week, the national average for a gallon of gas was $4.67. Diesel prices have skyrocketed by more than 75% in just one year. Economists are warning that things could get worse, with the national retail price for a gallon of gas projected to exceed $6.00 by the end of the summer. Reports anticipate that people will spend $5,000 on gas this year, a 78% increase from 2021.
We did not get to this pain point by accident, and despite Democrats’ desire to deflect blame, the high prices of gas are not due to Russia’s war, price gouging, or corporate greed. Americans are paying more at the pump because of the Biden administration’s deliberate war on domestic energy production. Biden promised on the campaign trail that he would end domestic drilling, and he has done his best to honor that promise, despite the catastrophic pain it is causing consumers.
On day one in office, the president paused all domestic oil and gas leases and canceled the Keystone Pipeline. Subsequently, he and his team have instituted a series of regulatory barriers to make domestic drilling much more challenging, and he has disincentivized investment in the industry. In the latest example, the Biden administration just released its five-year federal leasing plan, which contains only a maximum of 11 lease sales for oil and gas producers. The administration has also made the process of seeking those 11 leases much more cumbersome.
Ultimately, there is no guarantee that any of the identified potential leases will receive final approval from this administration. By comparison, President Donald Trump included 47 lease sales in his five-year plan.
We must end this administration’s war on domestic energy production and win back our energy independence. We can start by removing the regulatory barriers Biden has erected, opening up domestic drilling, and restarting the Keystone Pipeline. We must stop raiding our emergency reserves for short-term political gain. And we must never allow our president to ship our emergency fuel supplies to adversarial countries.
People are counting on us to do the right thing and provide much-needed relief.
Gus Bilirakis represents Florida’s 12th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
