Weeks after President Joe Biden said his policy would lead to lower gas prices, an industry expert said Americans should brace for paying more at the pump.
Gasoline futures have risen 30 cents in the past week “which is just bad news for the consumer,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, according to Fox Business.
As of Wednesday, the average price for a gallon of gas was $4.11, according to AAA, up three cents from Monday.
Lipow said that even though many states are chipping away at gasoline taxes, the national average price for gas is heading for somewhere between $4.15 and $4.20 per gallon.
Let’s be absolutely clear, Joe Biden is lying to struggling families. His war on energy policies began on day one when he ignited a firestorm.
Blaming Putin when everyone can see that inflation began long before Russia invaded Ukraine, just makes Biden look weak—and deceptive. https://t.co/hgBmPHE5cw
— Tosca Austen (@ToscaAusten) April 20, 2022
Lipow noted that ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to roil the gasoline market.
That is an invasion that did not have to happen, many have noted.
Biden’s “weakness and misplays have brought about an unthinkable and tragic invasion,” John Feehery, a former communications director and speechwriter for major congressional Republican leaders, wrote in a commentary piece published by The Hill in March.
In a commentary piece for Newsweek, titled “How a Weak Biden, Capitulating to the Green Left, Enabled Putin’s Invasion,” conservative podcast host Dan Holloway wrote that energy dependence on Russia, particularly in Europe, tempered any effort to strongly head off Russia’s invasion before it began.
Europe hates a strong America.
Europe hates a weak America more.
It is BIDEN’S WEAKNESS that is causing global chaos. pic.twitter.com/oe75wPWcSI
— Bloviating Zeppelin (@BZep) April 18, 2022
“Maybe, just maybe, the West shouldn’t have outsourced its energy strategy to a dictator from another country, someone they all claim to have known was a dictator. What was the plan exactly? To lure Russia into being nice by giving them all this power over the West while cutting off our own ability to supply energy to ourselves and others?” Holloway wrote.
But the damage is now done, Lipow told Fox Business, and Americans will pay for it at the pump.
He cited comments from the secretary OPEC earlier this month that OPEC members and other global oil producers could not replace Russian oil, and reports that the “EU is considering adopting a phased-in ban on the purchase of Russian oil and gas.”
Lipow said that in 2021, Russia shipped over 4 million barrels of oil per day to Europe and had sent 700,000 barrels of oil per day to the U.S.
Joe Biden’s weak foreign policy makes our enemies grow bold and our citizens less safe.
Exhibit A: https://t.co/IAaVPV7FQO
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 13, 2022
“How does the world come up with nearly 5 million barrels per day of alternate supplies if the European Union were to ban all Russian oil imports? Lipow said. “It simply can’t do it today.”
Even now, two months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European nations make up the largest customers for Russian oil and natural gas, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
In March, Biden said that releasing a million barrels of oil a day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months would do the trick, according to AP report at the time.
He said because of the action, gas prices could drop “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
