OPINION:
Joseph R. Biden has been president of the United States for less than four months, but the impact he’s having already is astounding. He’s working on a friendship with (Death to America) Iran. He’s promoting a federal takeover of state election systems, and he’s devastating our economy.
If you ask trained, educated economists about the American economy, they will tell you a wide variety of indicators and theories on why they believe said economy is performing well or poorly. If you ask the average American about it instead, one single factor will affect their opinion perhaps more than any other. That factor is the price of gasoline.
How much a family spends to drive their kids to school or get to work every day, how much trucks spend to deliver food to local grocery stores, and how much heating fuel costs to keep a winter home warm all have a huge impact on what else most families can afford.
The average price of a gallon of gasoline in America one year ago was $1.866. Today the current average is $3.039. That increase of more than 62% in only a year drives inflation, not only in the energy sector but also in the price of virtually any product or service that requires oil or gas to deliver. Groceries, toys, fast food, pharmaceuticals and even shipping and delivery services themselves are all affected.
Taking into account the full economy, inflation just registered a 4.2% year-over-year increase - and as a result the financial markets have the jitters. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 600 points on the news in just one day this week.
Wait, you say, why is that the fault of Mr. Biden? For starters, he put a freeze on federal oil and gas leases, which account for about 22% of U.S. oil production. When you take nearly a quarter of any product off the market, prices tend to rise. Mr. Biden also canceled the Keystone XL pipeline (despite the fact that after years of study the Environmental Protection Agency could find no reason to do so). Perhaps most damaging is that Mr. Biden has openly declared war on oil and natural gas as energy sources. It’s no wonder prices at the pump are so high.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s likely to get worse. Traditionally prices go up as summer vacation time draws near. The combination of those natural economic fluctuations with the Biden administration’s disastrous energy policies means $4 a gallon or more isn’t off the table.
What will our president, the self-proclaimed champion of the little guy, do to help the average American when the price of fuel is (and as a result, everything else) going through the roof? One need look no further than Mr. Biden’s Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. Asked about the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and resulting impact on gasoline availability, she said, “If you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly.“ Such empathy is hard to measure, primarily because it appears to be non-existent.
In theory, the idea of electric cars sounds great, but in the real world, 20% of California electric vehicle owners have gone back to gasoline-powered vehicles. Why? The National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) funded a study, supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The California Air Resources Board paid for the questionnaire part of the survey. What it found was dissatisfaction with charging convenience and not having level two, 240-volt chargers at home were the primary reasons. It’s a lot easier to pump gas for four minutes than charge your car for several hours. That’s reality.
The long and short of it is that such a significant percentage of electric vehicle owners are so unhappy that they are ditching their electric for a good old-fashioned fuel car. But Mr. Biden and his government cronies know better than those consumers. He knows better than you what you need. He wants no more gas cars sold starting in 2035, which is closer than you think. If you are inconvenienced by the skyrocketing price of gas or its lack of availability, the energy secretary thinks it’s just the energy gods having their way with you. If you were doing things the “right” way, you’d be OK.
Ms. Granholm had another gem this week. “Why have gas prices gone up? Could that be because of the (corona)virus itself as well? Everything is tied together.” Madam Secretary, it’s not COVID-19 or global warming causing the price spike, it’s Mr. Biden’s poorly planned policies. You know it. I know it. The American people know it. In fact, I can prove the American people know it.
TIPP Polls are one of two national pollsters that have actually predicted the outcome of the last two presidential elections pretty much spot-on. They prognosticated the voter percentage breakdown more accurately than anyone. In short, they have a long, established track record of being accurate. TIPP conducted a poll recently and found an overwhelming share of the public (81%) believes that it is critical to maintain U.S. energy independence. That number stayed north of 80% no matter party affiliation.
It’s the next number that Mr. Biden and the Green New Deal advocates need to focus even more on. Before enacting new legislation or regulations, 72% of the public wants an impact assessment to determine the economic impact on America’s communities. If you force Americans into electric cars instead of simply making gas engines more environmentally clean, how much does it cost? What does the car cost? How does someone drive more than 200 miles without an hour-long recharge? How will it impact food delivery? What happens to all the privately owned fueling stations if the government pays for electric chargers everywhere? Will jobs be lost? Will efficiency be sacrificed? Will our world get more expensive?
Seventy-two percent, or nearly three out of four Americans, think we ought to know the effects of the government mandating radical change to how we provide and receive energy in the United States before we make those changes. Mr. Biden, President-in-waiting Kamala Harris and Ms. Granholm don’t want any such study. There is no need for information. Just magically believe. Washington knows what you need better than you do, even if it is based on conjecture instead of, as they are fond of saying, science.
It’s time for Americans to speak out. Mr. Biden needs to reverse these policies that are choking us all at the gas pump. It’s not just our cars that depend on it, it is our very livelihood.
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