“I don’t have an answer in the short term,” admits President Biden in the face of the rise in the price of gasoline

October 22, 2021

2 minutes read

President Joe Biden greeted some of those present during his appearance at the Town Hall event in Baltimore.

Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty Images

The President Joe Biden admitted during the CNN Town Hall event on Thursday night that he has no immediate solution to the problem of rising gasoline prices. and he suggested that Americans wouldn’t start to see a decline in prices until next year.

“I suppose that gas prices will start to drop as we move forward and into winter, I mean, sorry, in the next year, 2022“Said the president, to moderator Anderson Cooper at the Baltimore event.

“I don’t see anything in the meantime that is going to significantly lower gas prices,” Biden said.

“I must tell you, I don’t have a short term answer“Added Biden before reflecting on the possibility that he could” go into the (Strategic) Petroleum Reserve to take out and probably reduce the price of gas maybe 18 cents, more or less per gallon, (but) it’s still going to be above three dollars “.

According to AAA, the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $ 3.36 on Thursday, four cents more than Monday’s average. The organization noted that no state had an average gasoline price lower than $ 3.00 per gallon.

In Gorda, California, on the state’s central coast, a gallon of unleaded gasoline cost $ 7.59, while Fox 5 reported last week that Manhattan motorists were paying nearly $ 5.00 a gallon to fill their tank.

AAA attributed the price hike to high demand, high crude oil prices and a drop in gas stocks, which Biden sought to blame on OPEC and its oil-producing allies in the Middle East on Thursday.

“Gas prices are related to a foreign policy initiative that is about something that goes beyond the cost of gas … This is because OPEC withholds supply“He said,” so there is a lot of negotiation, that is … there are a lot of people from the Middle East who want to talk to me. I’m not sure I’m going to talk to them, but the point is that it’s about gas production. “

Republicans have blamed Biden for raising energy prices, citing his administration’s pursuit of inflationary spending policies, as well as the president’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office.

“Gasoline prices are at their highest levels since 2014 and Americans’ heating costs could rise as much as 54% this winter,” the Republican National Committee’s @RNCResearch account tweeted in response to Biden’s comments.

“Biden attacked American energy, and now Americans are paying the price!”

“The answer ultimately is that the next three or four years, you are investing in renewable energy,” insisted Biden, who also touted the August announcement of the “big three” American automakers (Ford, GM and Chevrolet). that electric vehicles will account for 40 to 50 percent of its sales by 2030.

“So what will happen is you will see a dramatic drop in gas prices as we move forward over the next two or three years,” the president promised.

But in the meantime, Biden acknowledged that lowering gas rates “is going to be tough. It will be difficult. There is a possibility of being able to remove it. It depends a little on Saudi Arabia and some other things that are in sight.