DAVID ASMAN: Democrats exploit gas-price pain while ignoring their own record
DAVID ASMAN: Democrats exploit gas-price pain while ignoring their own record
The incredible irony of this election is that Democrats won largely on the issue of higher gas prices…when those same Democrats have done everything they can to raise gas prices when theyve been in power.
The very first executive order that President Biden signed on his first day in office was cancelling the 1,200-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought 830,000 barrels of Canadian oil a day into U.S. refineries. The U.S. Gulf Coast refineries that the Keystone pipeline would have served are built and optimized to process Canadas heavy, sour crude oils — like Alberta tar sands/bitumen — into high volumes of diesel and jet fuel. That is exactly the kind of fuel were in most need of right now.
And it wasnt just President Biden. On February 24, 2015, President Barack Obama vetoed the Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act passed by Congress. An attempt in the Senate to override Obamas veto failed on March 4, 2015.
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Other Democrat presidential contenders are on record favoring a carbon tax, which would have an immediate effect on raising gas prices. On Sept 4, 2019, Kamala Harris said, "Under my plan there will be a carbon fee." Likewise, Pete Buttigieg campaigned on the idea of an expensive carbon tax, saying, "I propose that we assess a carbon tax. I know youre not supposed to use the "T" word when youre in politics, but you might as well call this what it is."
When Buttigieg became secretary of Transportation under President Biden, he worked hard trying to get auto companies to switch from gas-powered cars to EVs, even though consumers werent buying and car companies and dealers were left warehousing thousands of unsold vehicles. GM absorbed $11.2 billion in losses and cancellation of its EV infrastructure plans. Ford eliminated entire models, such as its electric F-150 truck, which Buttigieg promoted and President Biden test drove in Dearborn, Michigan, in May 2021. Eventually, Ford took a $19.5 billion EV write-down. But through it all, Buttigieg insisted that EV buyers would never go back to gas-powered cars…even after a brutal winter when EV owners in Chicago and elsewhere swore theyd never buy another EV, as batteries failed to function in the cold weather.
Of course, the younger generation of Democrat presidential contenders are just as eager to raise your gas prices. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs "Green New Deal" was shoehorned, in part, into President Bidens infamously named "Inflation Reduction Act." The Act's multi-trillion-dollar green energy spending boondoggle became a major factor in the Biden administrations 21.5% cumulative inflation, which is still part of the unaffordability crisis that Democrats blame on President Trump.
All these lame-brain ideas and unworkable investments ended up creating big increases at the pump that dwarf todays prices. The gas prices under President Obama peaked at $4.55 a gallon, in some areas, in May 2011. Inflation adjusted, that would be $6.78 today. Gas peaked under President Biden at $5.03 in June 2022. That would be $5.79 today. And the highest spike hike under President Trump was $4.55 a gallon in mid-May of this year.
