Most of the conservative rhetoric towards the price of the pump is, Biden is at fault. Most of the rhetoric coming from progressives is, the gas companies are at fault or Putin. Most people with any sense would think the war and the West's sanctions on Russia removing their natural gas and oil supplies from their chain. You can blame Putin, Russia, the War, and the sanctions on this subject and you wouldn't be wrong. Biden's part in picking sanctions against Russian petroleum supplies (along with the rest of the world) means true, he is part to blame.
But where do we draw the line on what is rightfully to blame? Most rhetoric is being targeted to aim at rival political ideologies for obvious rallying tactics to unite their base. With headlines such as "Whose to Blame for Higher Gas Prices? Democratic Lawmakers Point the Finger at Oil Companies" and "Democrats for Higher Gas Prices" or "Biden Administration to blame for Higher Gas Prices, Virginia Representatives say".
Let's just cut through the cheese and go back to when the gas prices started to go up, which was before the war in Ukraine. Which brings us to point number one, when the economy started to boom again in 2022. The world was in a stagnant space where oil production was decreased heavily being that the demand was down. Nobody was ready for the boom that occurred when the world economies came back due to Covid-19 shutdowns). It rose to levels of growth in petroleum usage that was higher than expected. Which low supply and higher demand makes the prices go up.
Democrats point the finger at oil companies which is again unfair, the oil companies response to that is basically that they can't just turn on a tap overnight to make the production of oil increase. They said it will take time. Oil companies already plan to increase oil rigs by 35% and OPEC plans to amp up their production as well. Biden has ordered that one million barrels of oil will be released daily from our strategic reserves, which won't help decrease the prices until about six weeks when these releases start yielding gas that will be used at the pump.
Republicans point their finger at Biden saying that it is his energy policies that are causing this huge increase in prices. As you can see, that is not true in part, our oil and other parts of the world's oil production will be increasing. The world's stance on issuing Russia sanctions have highly effected the world's prices and supply chains causing an immediate hike in prices (which looks to be a long term factor). Biden, of course, is a major proponent on this plan of action.
In conclusion, help is on the way and it is going to take sometime because the world has to readjust it's supply chain.
References:
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-04-06/lawmakers-accuse-oil-executives-of-price-gouging-but-show-little-interest-in-price-controls%3f_amp=true
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/americans-blame-vladimir-putin-oil-companies-high-gas/story%3fid=83967683
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/kmph.com/amp/news/nation-world/biden-administration-to-blame-for-high-gas-prices-virginia-representative-says
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Very thought provoking. Thank you!