Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an author of the so-called “Green New Deal,” is warning that former President Donald Trump could allow oil companies to price gouge on gasoline.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested that Trump will allow energy companies to collusively raise prices at the pump should he win the 2024 election during a Thursday appearance on Spectrum News NY1, a New York-focused news station. Evidenced by her authorship of the massive “Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez is a leading advocate for a government-induced abandonment of fossil fuels in the American economy, an effort that critics have consistently charged will drive up energy costs for Americans over time.
“As you consider the message that Trump might deliver, will he find some New Yorkers receptive to that? How much of this crowd do you think is an out-of-town crowd versus a Bronx crowd?” Pat Kiernan, the host of the program, asked Ocasio-Cortez about Trump’s planned Thursday rally in the Bronx.
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“I mean, I suspect there’s gonna be a lot of out-of-towners there, and listen, we have a big diversity, I’m sure someone will be showing up supportive, but even the hit on the economic point, we just saw that the former president met with oil executives last week, saying ‘Hey, you give me a billion dollars, and I’ll make sure that you get the policies that are favorable to raising gas prices and making sure that a lot of these companies continue to price gouge without proper oversight or regulation,’” Ocasio-Cortez said in response. “So, the idea that he’d be bringing those down when he’s cashing in from the same folks that are bringing those prices up, I think is a little bit suspect. And again, I think the Bronx sees through it.”
Ocasio-Cortez is one of the authors of the “Green New Deal,” a multi-trillion dollar proposal that would guide the U.S. to reach net-zero emissions within a decade and guarantee jobs in the process. She is also an architect of the “Green New Deal for Public Housing,” which would see the federal government transform America’s public housing stock by removing gas stoves, installing electric vehicle chargers and more.
“Joe Biden is controlled by environmental extremists who are trying to implement the most radical energy agenda in history and force Americans to purchase electric vehicles they can’t afford,” Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for the trump campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “President Trump is supported by people who share his vision of American energy dominance to protect our national security and bring down the cost of living for all Americans.”
In January 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic, Americans paid an average of $2.55 per gallon for all types of gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Those figures have grown considerably since November 2020, the month that President Joe Biden won the presidential election; the average price sat at $3.61 per gallon in April 2024 after peaking at $4.92 in June 2022.
The administration released about 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) ahead of the 2022 midterm elections to bring down spiking energy costs. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to release one million barrels of gasoline from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve to bring down gas prices several months in advance of the 2024 elections.
Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, have blamed energy inflation on corporate collusion and greed, along with other factors like the Russia-Ukraine war.
However, numerous energy analysts and experts have attributed the price increases in part to the Biden administration’s $1 trillion-plus climate agenda. The Biden administration has explicit goals of decarbonizing the American power sector by 2030, and the overall U.S. economy by 2050.
The administration has taken many actions to restrict domestic oil and gas production, issued stringent environmental regulations affecting energy producers and unleashed massive subsidies favoring green energy sources like wind and solar. All of these policies have the combined effect of driving up prices that consumers pay at the pump and elsewhere over time, according to the American Energy Alliance, a right-leaning energy interest group.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from the Trump campaign.
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