Biden blames COVID AND Putin for soaring gas prices, admits it’s ‘hard to tell’ when they will go down and says Americans will save $80 a month if they buy an electric car as he unveils plan to reduce pain at the pumps
- President Biden announced the release of 180 million barrels of oil over six month from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve later on Thursday
- He said record high gas prices had two roots: the pandemic and Putin’s war
- He will also ask Congress to impose fees on oil and gas companies that lease federal land but are not using permits to produce energy
- And he will use the Defense Production Act to accelerate switch to electric cars
- The White House has been desperately looking at ways to lower fuel prices
- Oil prices have surged since President Putin invaded Ukraine
- It would be the largest release in the near 50-year history of the SPR
Joe Biden said Thursday that record gas prices were caused by the pandemic and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine as he unveiled a two-pronged plan to increase supply and reduce demand.
He announced he would release a million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic reserve for the next six months and accelerate the switch to electric vehicle.
But his analysis of the cause of the crisis will attract criticism for opponents who accuse him of shifting the blame for his administration’s economic woes.
‘The problem we’re facing with gas prices has two roots,’ Biden told reporters at the White House.
‘First, the pandemic. When COVID struck demand for oil plummeted so production slowed down worldwide.
‘Because of the strength and the speed of recovery demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. That’s why the cost of gas began to rise last year.
‘The second root is Vladimir Putin.’