President Biden said record-high gas prices are part of an “incredible transition” that will make America and the world better off.
During a visit to Japan on Monday, Mr. Biden celebrated an average national gasoline price of $4.59 as growing pains that Americans must go through to wean the economy off its dependence on fossil fuels.
“[When] it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,” he said at a press conference after his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
But Mr. Biden also insisted that his administration’s policies such as releasing part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are designed, not to aid this great transition, but to stop the gas-price spike “from getting worse — and it’s bad.”
Republicans weren’t buying it.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, called Mr. Biden’s remark an unintentional slip of the mask.
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“Biden refers to the skyrocketing gas prices as an ‘incredible transition.’ They’re saying the quiet part out loud now. They’re causing you pain at the pump because it’s all part of their radical agenda.”
Conservatives have long been suspicious that liberal policies and regulations limiting fossil-fuel production and exploration are designed to make them so expensive that renewable energy becomes more competitive — President Obama once said words to that effect about the coal industry.
“Democrats are celebrating the higher gas prices Americans are paying,” the National Republican Congressional Committee tweeted.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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