Last July President Joe Biden assured us price increases were “temporary.” The latest Consumer Price Index, however, shows a year-over-year increase of 8.5%. A much bigger number lurks in the report, however.
Even with the recent declines, gasoline prices are still up a whopping 44.0% over the year. Unfortunately, it comes as no surprise to Americans suffering at the pump.
Americans suddenly making sacrifices just to fill up a tank are looking for our domestic energy production to do more to help. They understand that outside factors, including Russian hostilities in Ukraine and refinery bottlenecks, continue to create upward pressure on oil prices, even if recessionary fears act in the opposite direction. What they do not get is why the Biden administration seems to take every opportunity to keep American oil and gas sidelined.
They remember 2011 when gasoline retail hit $4/gallon (crude oil prices had reached over $113/barrel). But they also remember something remarkable. We started reaping the benefits of American ingenuity. George Mitchell combined two old technologies, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, to solve the riddle of tapping America’s vast but previously trapped shale oil and gas resources.