Well folks it's happening all across America. It's happening in Congress. It's happening
in conservative media. It's happening in conversations with your neighbors,
your friends, your coworkers, Republicans and conservatives are blaming Joe Biden
for gas prices being so darn high here in the United States. Truth is they're really not that
much higher than usual. And they're certainly not at the highest level they've ever been.
So, alright. Not to mention the fact, and I think this is the most important thing that we
should talk about, the president doesn't set gas prices and there isn't a single policy so far that
has come out from the Biden administration that has affected gas prices in the least.
And I know Republicans at that point will jump on it and say, oh, you're so wrong, Farron,
you should learn about the Keystone XL pipeline that he shut down earlier this year.
Oh, you mean the pipeline that wasn't in operation?
You mean the pipeline that was carrying Canadian tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast to be shipped out
overseas? That one? Yeah. That had no effect on gas prices here in the United States. As I said,
most of it wasn't operational to begin with. Like it wasn't even a thing. It wasn't a
thing. I have been writing about, I have been giving interviews, I have been taking interviews
on the Keystone XL pipeline for over a decade. Like that one's right in my wheelhouse and I
absolutely love talking about the Keystone XL pipeline. And I'm glad that I don't have
to talk about it anymore except of course, to debunk idiotic right wing talking points
about it somehow affecting gas prices here in the United States. But let's be honest.
Conservatives don't care. They don't wanna understand the economics behind gas prices.
So I'm gonna throw out a couple numbers that maybe even the most ardent conservatives in
this country can understand as we face a time of rising gas prices.
While rising gasoline prices have adversely affected millions of working people in the US,
the world's big fossil fuel corporations have benefited immensely raking in a combined $174
billion in profits during the first nine months of this year. In the third quarter of 2021 alone,
two dozen of the most profitable oil and gas companies, a group that includes Shell, BP,
Exxon and Chevron, recorded $74.9 billion in net income, net income in third quarter.
Gas prices are artificially higher right now because oil companies can do it
and they're the ones getting all the profits. That has nothing to do with Joe Biden.
That has everything to do with corporate greed. Here's another fact that conservatives are
conveniently overlooking, but Democrats are paying attention to because it's frigging horrible.
Public Citizen showed in a report this week that since Biden took office, the interior department's
bureau of land management has approved an average of 333 oil and gas drilling permits per month this
year, 40% more than it did in the first three years of Trump's presidency. So we're about
to have more drilling than ever, you know, we actually that during the Obama administration.
We're about to go back to that, 333 permits
per month, 333 per month. Not just 333 new permits for drilling on federal lands this year, 333
per month. And you're gonna tell me that somehow Biden is an enemy of the fossil fuel industry?
I would love it if Biden was an enemy of the fossil fuel industry.
I would love it if he were standing up to them and shutting their asses down,
but he's not doing that. He's giving them everything they've ever wanted.
Another big problem with energy here in the United States and this does go a little bit
beyond gasoline prices is our energy grid. Our energy grid is outdated. Our energy grid
is inefficient. We need to improve that, which is something that would be included with the
infrastructure and Build Back Better act plans. So those need to be passed. We could save energy.
We could switch to renewables. We could get out of the grasp of fossil fuel companies
once and for all and then maybe gas prices wouldn't bother any of us.
But Republicans will never let this talking point die. I know that because I dealt with it for
eight years with the Obama administration. They didn't make a peep during the Bush administration
where gas started off at 97 cents a gallon and then peaked at $4 and 11 cents a gallon,
you know, adjusted for inflation. That would be what about seven bucks today?
Yeah. So don't and moan about gas prices, just because a Democrats in office,
because we know well you don't care how high they get when Republicans are there.