<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1664994405103,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1664994405103,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_64978998", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1111397"} }); ","_id":"00000183-a966-d714-a783-adf75f350000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedFor decades, left-wing Democrats have been advocating higher gas prices — after all, there is no stopping global warming as long as there’s $2 gas. But now the tables have turned. Gas prices are high and climbing again, and Democrats are in a panic. There’s an election coming up in a month — didn’t you hear?
Currently, in spite of White House spin, gas is about $1.50 higher on average than when President Joe Biden took office. In some politically sensitive states, gas prices are exceedingly high, such as in Wisconsin ($4.06, according to AAA), Arizona ($4.51), and Nevada ($5.54).
WHITE HOUSE EXPRESSES ‘DISAPPOINTMENT’ WITH OPEC+ SLASHING OIL PRODUCTION
Part of the blame lies with Biden himself, between his anti-fossil fuel policies and his predictably inflationary post-COVID spending. Part of the blame lies with the Russian invasion of Ukraine — but not that much of it. Gas prices had already shot up by $1.25 per gallon before President Vladimir Putin went to war.
Either way, despite his hostility toward domestic oil and gas exploration, Biden is now being forced into a lot of what would normally be considered unnatural behavior for a Democrat.
First, he released a million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over six months, starting in March. This release has depleted the reserve to its lowest level since 1984. That may not be so wise, given the heightened likelihood of war with Russia and a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Ohio’s Republican Senate nominee, J.D. Vance, was not wrong when he called it “the most politically selfish thing an American president has done in recent memory.”
Importantly, it also evinces an implicit belief on Biden’s part that, yes, the danger from global warming really is mostly just hype. It’s a lot like politicians who spend big money on luxurious mansions that they claim will be underwater in a few years.
But it gets worse. Biden, unwilling to irritate his environmentalist political base by encouraging more domestic drilling (they are already rebelling over Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) very modest permitting reforms), was then forced to go, hat in hand, begging foreign despots to produce more oil for him.
Biden had dug his own hole on this one. During his 2020 election campaign, he did a lot of chest-thumping over the human rights record of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — at the time, he felt it would help him politically. But as a consequence, Arab leaders refused at first even to take his phone calls. They forced Biden to pay an unusual visit to that part of the world as penance earlier this year, during which Biden embarrassingly fist-bumped the crown prince — the very man he had savaged as a killer.
So much for Biden’s concerns about human rights.
So Biden’s desire to bring gas prices down in time for the election was so great that he basically turned his back on everything he professed to believe about climate change and human rights.
And now, he is receiving the first installment of his just reward. This week, the member countries of the oil cartel known as OPEC — that includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — met and agreed not to increase production as Biden had wanted them to. In fact, they will be reducing production by 2 million barrels per day, counteracting by a factor of two any cumulative effects of Biden’s strategic petroleum release on the world’s oil supply.
Biden has humiliated America in many ways since taking office, beginning with his ignominious, disorderly, lethal rout in Afghanistan last September. That sign of American weakness was deadly in that it helped convince Putin he could safely invade Ukraine.
But this repudiation by previously cooperative nations within OPEC may be the most personal snub Biden has suffered yet.
Biden was once credibly described as the world’s wrongest man on foreign policy. Although that probably overstates the case, there is no question that he has driven away allies and shown weakness toward America’s enemies. Both friends and foes are now watching from the edges, either hoping or fearing that Americans will soon elect somebody with a spine. Until 2024, the best voters can do is take away the keys to Biden’s policy car by voting Democrats out of office. If they’ve been defending Biden, they certainly deserve it.
