While some lawmakers in Congress say gas companies are guilty of ripping off the public, others are placing blame on the president’s policies for sky-high prices.
Democrats led an investigation aimed at the six largest oil companies on Wednesday. The House subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations clearly attempted to blame the companies by titling the hearing, “Gouged at the Gas Station: Big Oil and America’s Pain at the Pump.”
Lawmakers are butting heads, pointing fingers at who’s to blame for gas prices and the nation’s 40-year-high inflation rate which sits at almost 7.9%.
“Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. In the near term, the answer is straightforward; if we want to reduce prices, we need to increase supply,” said Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods.
Republicans outspokenly lay the blame at President Biden’s feet.
“The day Joe Biden took the oath of office gas was $2.38,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “Today, it’s $4.16 per gallon. In some parts of the country it’s gone as high as $6.90 per gallon.”
President Biden has pointed his own finger at several culprits, including the war in Ukraine, COVID, the supply chain, and energy executives. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) refuted those claims in a GOP press conference Wednesday. “This is not a result of Putin’s war, it’s a result of Biden’s policy,” Sen. Lankford said.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) was present during the joint presser with his Republican colleagues, saying Democrats started price hikes with policies aimed at ushering in green energy.
“They {Democrats} must have amnesia because they held a similar hearing in October, but what they were yelling about then was, ‘you shouldn’t produce more energy,'” Barrasso said. “Today, they’re brow-beating them to produce more.”
Others see rising energy costs as a complex and multi-faceted issue. Head petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan at GasBuddy.com told CBN even though it may not feel like it, we’re entering our third week of declining gas prices. The current national average is about $4.16 per gallon, which is down about 19 cents from recent highs.
“I have the full expectation that gas prices will continue to drop as stations pass along those decreases,” DeHaan said. “There’s just a lot of nuances to how gas prices work, that politicians don’t seem to understand.”
DeHaan said gas companies don’t set prices because they fluctuate by the second due to supply and demand in the market. He also pointed out that President Biden’s release of 1 million barrels of oil per day over the next few weeks only amounts to a couple days of the world’s oil supply. He believes the market will have to work itself out.
“We do not control the market price of crude oil or natural gas, nor other refined products like gasoline and diesel fuel,” said Chevron CEO Mike Wirth. “We have no tolerance for price gouging.”
Some lawmakers say the subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations’ attack on big oil was just a show, that the hearing will not do anything at all to improve the financial burden many Americans are facing.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN