Letter: The president is not to blame for high gas prices

keyboard

It continues to amaze me how people do not understand basic concepts they say they believe in.

An example of this would be a recent letter writer who complained about gas prices and blamed it on the president. Continually, people support capitalism and free markets while railing against socialism (control of production by the government), yet when prices go up they blame the government.

The duty of the executive branch is to execute the law. President Joe Biden did what was within his constitutional power by releasing oil from our reserves. On the capitalism side of things, the major oil companies refused to drill on over 9,000 oil leases, keeping supply low. This, along with the war in Ukraine, increased demand created by decreasing COVID restrictions. This all combined to give us low supply, high demand and high prices.

Oil companies profited to the tune of $174 billion, their largest quarters ever, by keeping supply low while the demand increased. That is how the market works. It is interesting to watch people yell about the government taking their freedoms, for government to stay out of their business and how much they hate socialism, but when prices go up they yell about the government not doing anything.

Don’t forget, we subsidize the oil industry to the tune of $10 billion per year. We are ending subsidies to alternative energy sources and the last administration worked to get Russia and Saudi Arabia to decrease supply. We continue to do little to transition to alternative energy. So you criticize Joe Biden for your gas prices? Really?

Jeff Varda

McHenry

Have a Question about this article?