

Big Oil’s latest demand – immediately open more public lands for drilling – is both illegal and will do nothing to lower gas prices for everyday Americans. The oil and gas industry and their allies in Congress have pushed a false narrative that the fault of rising gas prices lies with the White House and are shamelessly preying on the fears of working families concerned about prices at the pump to extract big regulatory policy wins to enhance their future profits. government give them more public lands to stockpile. Flying under claims of “energy security” and the false pretense that more reckless drilling on public lands would lower increasingly rising gas prices, the oil and gas industry is demanding the U.S.

The industry claims that the rise in gas prices is due to an alleged failure by the Biden administration to sell enough leases and issue enough permits to drill for oil on federal lands and in federal waters. But while Ukrainians fight for their lives, the oil industry has pounced on an opportunity to profit economically and politically. Even more significantly, it’s a story of tremendous human pain for the more than two million Ukrainians who have fled their homes, some desperately trying to do so under mortar shells and rockets from Russian forces, while others have been forced to take up arms to defend their country. So far this is a story of economic pain from higher gas prices in America and around the world caused by changes in supply and demand that have nothing to do with regulatory matters here at home.

import ban on Russian oil announced by President Biden, means a tighter supply in international markets, driving prices for gasoline rapidly upward in America and elsewhere. More recently, gas prices have shot up as Russia, a major oil-producing state, prepared for and then launched an invasion of Ukraine, causing Western nations to impose economic sanctions that limit Russia’s ability to sell its oil into the international marketplace. When the economy began to recover and demand increased as people drove more, gas prices predictably rose in the United States and around the world. Demand for gas collapsed when the economy shuttered after the pandemic first hit in early 2020, driving gas prices down. Gasoline prices in the United States have been rising since the depths of the COVID pandemic in late 2020.
