Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that the Biden administration’s policies are not responsible for record-high gas prices, and the only way to fix the energy crisis in the “medium-term” is to move towards “renewables to address climate change.”
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Yellen was asked to respond to a statement Wednesday by the American Petroleum Institute, which said the Biden administration’s “misguided policy agenda shifting away from domestic oil and natural gas has compounded inflationary pressures and added headwinds to companies’ daily efforts to meet growing energy needs while reducing emissions.” [bold, links added]
Yellen fired back that the historically high gas prices have nothing to do with policies and are reflective of low-producing oil companies.
“Well, I don’t think that policies are responsible for what’s happening in the oil market,” she said. “Actually, consumption of gas and fuels are currently at lower levels than pre-pandemic, and what’s happened is the production has gone down. Refinery capacity is declined in the United States and oil production has declined. I think that producers were partly caught unaware by the strength of the recovery in the economy and weren’t ready to meet the needs of the economy. High prices should induce them to increase supplies over time.”
Yellen argued that the best way to address the energy crisis in the “medium-term” is to transition the country off of fossil fuels.
“And look, as a medium-term matter, the way in which we can assure reasonable energy expenses for households is to move to renewables to address climate change, as a medium-term matter,” she said. “That’s the way to free us from geopolitical movements in oil prices.”
Yellen added that President Biden is considering a range of options to help bring down gas prices, including a federal gas tax holiday.
“President Biden wants to do anything he possibly can to help consumers,” she said. “Gas prices have risen a great deal, and it’s clearly burdening households, so he stands ready to work with Congress, and that’s an idea that certainly worth considering.”
The national average of a gallon of unleaded gas hit $4.99 on Sunday after hitting an all-time high of $5 for a solid week earlier this month.
Biden has blamed the Russian war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic for fueling the price rise and record inflation, while Republicans blame exorbitant government spending and U.S. dependence on foreign oil markets.
In its statement last week, the American Petroleum Institute called on the administration to “prioritize unlocking U.S. energy resources – that are the envy of the world – instead of increasing reliance on foreign sources.”
Read more at Fox Business
Please pause, Dr. Janet Yellen
I believe Dr. Davey Boorey would like to eat your pussy.
Renewibles just more Big Government and their useless ideas and Biden the Bungler
“Moving to renewables” is what caused this mess, Yellen. For people that claim to love the science, you sure don’t understand it well at all. I’m a farmer with a biology degree. Abandoning 85% of the energy that has made us the best fed, longest-living, most prosperous human beings that have ever existed is NOT PROGRESSIVE. It is the most regressive and ill-informed idea the left have ever come up with. It has driven energy costs and inflation to record highs. And brought energy poverty death back to some of the richest countries on earth. Pushing unreliable solar and wind on the grid is NOT PROGRESSIVE. It is the most regressive, redundant and expensive policy the left has ever pushed. Solar and wind aren’t green. They are rustbelt red. In twenty years, they’ll be dumped on the unrecyclable trash heap. Imagining that solar and wind is “green energy” is sheer ignorance. Because the basic ingredient of our carbon based life on earth is CO2, and using fossil fuels returns life essential CO2 to the environment where it can generate more life and food. FOSSIL FUELS ARE THE ONLY GREEN ENERGY. Do your homework, Yellen. Because your ignorance is killing us. Energy poverty worldwide kills more people than the climate ever will. And climate safety has improved tenfold over the last century. Thanks 85% to fossil fuels, our only green energy. Dummy up.
I really wish people like Ms Yellen would stick to her core job. She’s the federal treasurer for god sake. Stick to your knitting – please.
Just this week, we had a know-it-all from the ANZ bank in Australia telling us how wonderful it is to invest in renewables and for companies “to do the right thing”. What makes these people think we care what they say? Idiots !!!
It is disingenuous to say that increasing North American petroleum output would return us to pre-pandemic prices. Under current trade rules, we’d be selling to Europe because they’re desperate and would pay accordingly. If there were more LNG facilities here and in Europe, we’d be paying a lot more for natural gas, too. Where is Angela Merkel hiding these days?
I have better idea how about if al the Liberal Democrats just moved to the Amazon and took up living in the Trees