The following Wednesday: New York Times ran a biased story by official fact-checker Linda Qiu in defense of President Biden and high gas prices: “Invasion and Pandemic, Not Policies, Are Driving Up Gas Prices.” The online headline was more partisan: “Republicans Wrongly Blame Biden for Rising Gas Prices.” It’s a far cry from the paper’s reaction to high prices during the last Bush administration.
As gas prices hit a high this week, top Republican lawmakers took to the airwaves and the floors of Congress with misleading claims that pinned the blame on President Biden and his energy policies.
Mr. Biden warned that his ban on imports of Russian oil, gas and coal, announced on Tuesday as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, would cause gas prices to rise further. High costs are expected to last as long as the confrontation does.
Gas prices were already high when the war began, having risen by roughly a dollar since Biden took office and have soared ever higher since.
Although Republican lawmakers supported the ban The pain from the pump had long been preceded by the war in Ukraine, they claimed. Gas price hikes, they said, were the result of Mr. Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, the temporary halt on new drilling leases on public lands and the surrendering of “energy independence” — all incorrect assertions.
Qiu huffed:
These claims can be misleading. The primary reason for rising gas prices over the past year is the coronavirus pandemic and its disruptions to global supply and demand.
“Covid changed the game, not President Biden,” said Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, which tracks gasoline prices. “U.S. oil production fell in the last eight months of President Trump’s tenure. What is his fault? No.”
Biden has previously claimed that gas prices had fallen temporarily in December. This suggests that he believes he can control gas prices.
Demand outpaced supply as pandemic controls were eased around the world and countries recovered. That was “mostly attributable” to the decision by OPEC Plus, an alliance of oil-producing countries that controls about half the world’s supply, to limit increases in production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Domestic production also remains below prepandemic levels….
Biden’s faults were framed in light terms.
These factors are largely out of Mr. Biden’s control, experts agreed, though they said he had not exactly sent positive signals to the oil and gas industry and its investors by vowing to reduce emissions and fossil fuel reliance.
However much control a president actually has over the price at the pump, the Times’ defensive attempt to circle the wagons for Biden against Republican criticism was nothing like the gas attacks it ran against Republican President George W. Bush.
A 2006 story began:
An Earth Day was dedicated to President Bush Gas prices record-highWhile he promoted hydrogen-powered fuel cells cars and Democrats supported him, they were still years away. Moreover, the president must do more to alleviate sticker shock at pump.
In just one month, four headline stories were published in the newspaper about Bush’s rise in gas prices.
A front-page 2008 story that described President Bush as “detached from the nation’s economic woes” lead off:
The first hint that President Bush might be detached from the nation’s economic woes was in February, When he admitted that he’d never heard of predictions about gasoline prices at $4 per gallon, he was humble.
In a story published in 2011, Barack Obama was in office and the paper discovered that the gas price is all about supply.
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