New York Times Paul Krugman, economist, said President Joe Biden does not have control over gas price rises. This, of course, comes after Krugman pilloried former President Donald Trump a year earlier for allegedly exercising the same control he said Biden didn’t have.
Krugman used Twitter to attempt to communicate. explain away the abysmal election results for Democrats Tuesday in an attempt to protect Biden: “One issue that seems to have influenced voters Tuesday was the price of gasoline — over which Biden has no control.” But Krugman went after Trump in 2020 over his alleged control over the price of oil, which affects gas prices. “Crude oil prices have determined at least half of the price of each gallon of gas over the last decade,” according to The Balance. “Why is Trump so desperate to raise oil prices, even though America is a net oil importer?” Krugman gripedIn an April 2020 Tweet. Krugman is also mentioned in another tweet for April 2020. sniped at “Trump’s eagerness to raise oil prices, supposedly to protect a much smaller number of jobs.” Aside from the clear hypocrisy, Krugman is wrong. Environmental Progress Founder and President Michael Shellenberger ripped Krugman’s argument that Biden had no control over gas prices as “ridiculous” and “absurd.”
Paul Krugman says voters shouldn’t be mad at Biden because he has no control over the price of gasoline, but that’s absurd: the US is the world’s largest producer of oil; Biden froze new oil/ gas leases in January; and he may open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices. https://t.co/IrlyvquS5N
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) November 4, 2021
As Shellenberger pointed out on Twitter, “the US is the world’s largest producer of oil; Biden froze new oil/ gas leases in January; and he may open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices.” Shellenberger proceeded to note in a corresponding Tweet that “Biden doesn’t agree with @paulkrugman that he’s not capable of lowering oil prices. Biden has been pressing OPEC to increase production for several weeks.[.] But, as Bloomberg’s @JavierBlas
notes, Saudi Arabia & Russia are producing at or above pre-covid levels & ‘it’s the US who’s lagging.’”
GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan argued back in April that Biden’s energy plan was contributing to rising gas prices. The Wall Street Journal A biden administration was also blamed by the editorial board for making it difficult to produce in America.
The Administration has been threatening oil and gas producers in the United States with an array of regulations and taxes. This is making it harder for them to increase their output. Producers aren’t going to drill more wells today, even at today’s higher prices, if they don’t think they will produce future profits.
Canary CEO Dan Eberhart wrote in an August op-ed for Forbes that Biden was “actively curbing U.S. [oil and gas] production through his dedication to rebuilding the regulatory state that former President Trump tried to dismantle.”
Fox Business host Charles Payne is even slapped CNN Business for trying to protect Biden from the gas prices spike: “Biden declared war on fossil fuel and took swift action while threatening more. Oil projects can’t find funding and portfolio managers shunning stocks.” He continued: “When supply can’t meet demand prices rise.”
Krugman was able to simultaneously be hypocritical and right in one tweet.
Conservatives under attackContact us. Reach out to The New York Times 1-800-698-4637 and demand it report the truth about Biden’s contribution to rising gas prices.
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