Russia is to blame for rising gas prices, not President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, Biden announced the U.S. was banning all Russian oil, gas, and energy imports.
Europe is usually the first to lead important decisions, but this time the U.S. was ahead by sanctioning Russian imports.
Biden acknowledged European allies were not in the position to make such bold sanctions on Russian oil. The U.S. imports about 700,000 barrels of oil a day, while Europe imports more than 4 million barrels. Europe is reportedly striving to reduce the intake of barrels of Russian oil needed each day.
This decision has already hit home in the U.S. as gasoline at gas stations rose throughout the country.
“I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here are home,” said Biden. "In coordination with our partners, we’ve already announced we are releasing 60 million barrels of oil from our joint reserves… 30 million of that is coming from the United States.”
Biden also praised oil and gas industries that pulled out of Russia and joined other businesses leading by example. Shell, BP, and Exxon Mobil have exited or ended projects in Russia. Other businesses have stopped or paused sales in Russia. This mostly comes from consumers and investors pressuring organizations to do their part in condemning Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Biden took the opportunity to remind the U.S. that to protect the economy in the long-term they would need to become energy independent.
“It should motivate us [the people] to accelerate the transition of clean energy,” Biden said, “Loosening environmental regulations or pulling back clean energy investments won’t, will not, lower energy prices for families.”
The president has high hopes for electric vehicles powered by clean energy (with tax credits) to help American families.
While Biden’s intentions are to support Ukraine, and Russian imports are not of great significance as Europe's to make gas prices shocking, some reporters were quick to condemn Biden, instead of Putin for the gas prices.
People like Fox News reporter, Peter Doocy, believed Biden was to blame for the rising gas prices during today's White House daily briefing. Notably, the prices were already climbing since President Vladimir Putin started gathering forces gathering forces at the Ukrainian border.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, had a few words to say about the war escalating inflation, especially with COVID-19.
"Events in the world, including the invasion by Russia of a foreign country, does prompt instability and volatility in the global oil markets… And there are all sorts of different issues that can impact that. That's what we're seeing now,” stated Psaki.
Apparently Republicans also held Biden accountable for the rising gas prices. Thanks to The New York Times, fact-check reporter, Linda Qui, the misleading accusations are all cleared up in her article.
One of the reasons for the rising gas prices is due to the pandemic and the unstable supply demand, according to Qui.
Stay safe and godspeed, my friends.