Energy prices have shot up by more than a third since President Biden assumed office in 2021 as stubborn inflation continues to tax Americans.
The Labor Department’s new Consumer Price Index (CPI) report on Tuesday showed that gasoline and housing costs were the biggest drivers of a 0.4% increase in March. [emphasis, links added]
Prices climbed 3.5% from the same time last year, higher than economists had predicted. Oil prices have reached a five-month high.
“There is no improvement here, we’re moving in the wrong direction,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.
“The usual trouble spots persist — shelter, motor vehicle insurance, maintenance, and repairs, service costs. Add electricity to that list, up 0.9% in March and 5% over the past year,” he added.
Tuesday’s inflation numbers punctuate what has been a dreadful three years for energy consumers. The overall cost of energy in March is up 36.9% from where it was in Jan. 2021, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
All categories of energy are more expensive today than three years ago. In January 2021, electricity cost $0.14 per kilowatt-hour and as of March 2024, it cost $0.17, an increase of 28%.
Every driver in America knows that gasoline prices surged to exorbitant highs in 2022, following international disruptions in oil production as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Prices have since come down, but overall gas still costs 52.1% more today than when Biden became president.
On Jan. 18, 2021, the average price per gallon of gas was $2.38, and today it is $3.62, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
Diesel prices tell a similar story, increasing 50.4% over the last three years, from $2.70 per gallon in January 2021 to $4.06 per gallon today.
Biden, who is running for re-election in 2024, has sought to combat rising energy prices by ramping up government spending on clean energy alternatives.
The Inflation Reduction Act (2022) invested $369 billion in what Democrats labeled “Energy Security and Climate Change” provisions, translating to billions of dollars of incentives and tax breaks intended to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030.
The law offsets those costs with a new 15% Corporate Minimum Tax and additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service to crack down on tax avoidance.
On Friday, the White House announced that $20 billion in IRA funding will be distributed by the Environmental Protection Agency to nonprofits that will fund tens of thousands of clean energy projects across the country.
The administration has also made verbal commitments to phase out coal power plants nationwide, joining 56 other nations in the Power Past Coal Alliance.
Additionally, a Wall Street Journal analysis found that the Biden administration has leased fewer acres for oil and gas drilling offshore and on federal land than any other presidential administration dating back to World War II.
However, critics say the president’s pursuit of clean energy is out of touch and point to Tuesday’s CPI report as evidence the Inflation Reduction Act failed.
“In that law, Joe Biden and his supporters celebrated the passage of the largest green energy slush fund in history and all it is delivering are higher prices across the board,” said Daniel Turner, founder and executive director for Power the Future, a leading energy industry group.
“Since day one in office, Joe Biden continues to pursue an agenda that is detached from common sense but hits every American right in the pocketbook,” Turner added.
Despite Biden’s commitments to clean energy, inflation forced the president to take action, and he began draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in late 2021 to combat high fuel prices.
The president also traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022 in part to ask OPEC nations to increase oil production.
Last week, the Biden administration canceled a plan to purchase up to three million barrels of oil to replenish the SPR amid rising oil prices.
“Thanks to Joe Biden, American families are struggling to stay out of the dark, and it has nothing to do with an eclipse,” Turner said. “Americans are paying massive costs both at the pump and on their electric bill and all Joe Biden offers are pathetic gimmicks such as draining the SPR, begging Saudi Arabia for more oil, and then blaming all his failures on Russia.”
Read more at Fox Business
As energy prices soar Biden is getting ready to Crash and Burn and take the DNC with him
The indication in this article of high gas prices is the picture of the Mobil sign with regular at $3.879 a gallon. In Washington the cheapest gas within a reasonable distance from our home is $4.699. The highest in the state is $5.320. The Democrats snuck through a cap and trade tax that significantly has added to the cost. A few years ago the Democrats also passed an increase in gas tax for transportation. Polls showed that this is strong opposed by the public but they passed it as an emergency so a referendum couldn’t be used to repeal it.
One thing the above article shows is that on the national level, the Democrats have significantly increased the cost of energy. Now they are asking voters to return them to office in the 2024 election.
“Since day one in office, Joe Biden continues to pursue an agenda that is detached from common sense but hits every American right in the pocketbook,” Turner added.
The United States Senate career of Joe Biden began on January 3, 1973. One of the first bills he voted on related to the Trans-Alaska pipeline. He voted against it.
YUP! – since day one! Fifty years ago!!
Energy price has many influences. I see too much cherry picking on both political sides. Sub-prime mortgage collapse and recession, high interest rates, low interest rates, Wuhan pandemic, Middle East wars, Socialist/Conservative wax and wane. Who was in power when. Reading between the lines is a lonely existence.