The Big Oil & Gas Sooper Thread

✪ The pain you’re feeling at the gas pump right now is not just the result of the Biden Administration’s policies, but they are a direct fulfillment of candidate Biden’s promises when he was vying for the Democrat nomination last election cycle.

Nobody ever won the presidency by promising the American people that if you were to elect him, you’d be paying more for gas every time you fill up. Indeed, when Joe Biden was running against Donald Trump in 2020, he attempted to convince the American people (and more importantly, his pals in the Media) that Trump’s warnings of higher gas prices were just a load of malarkey. 

Of course, journalists determined to upend Trump’s presidency and his reelection efforts were willingly convinced that Uncle Joe had no intention to enact any policies that would impact the price of gas, or they were willing to lie to defeat Trump. Either way, Biden skated with barely any scrutiny. 

Now, Americans are feeling the worst inflation and energy costs in our nation’s history, and it was all foretold and could have been prevented. 

On the eve of the 2020 election, Trump predicted the gas prices we are now seeing with frightening accuracy: 

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“If Biden got in, you’d be paying seven dollars, eight dollars, nine dollars, and then they’ll say ‘get rid of your car.'” Does anyone from PolitiFact want to have a run at this one? Looks pretty damn accurate right about now, doesn’t it? And he made this prediction when we were paying around two dollars per gallon. Trump said, “That’s like a tax cut,” when reflecting on the low cost of gas. 

Clearly, the inverse of that “tax cut” of low gas prices is the astronomical tax hike we are suffering from right now. 

But please don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is the result of incompetence (that’s an easy leap to make given the people in charge of our policies). 

And don’t think that this is just a rudderless presidency without a plan that is subject to the outside forces of Covid, inflation, and Putin. 

No, this is not just part of a plan. It’s the fulfillment of a campaign promise made when Biden was wrestling the Democrat nomination from his fellow extremists like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. This was a primary process that brought the Democrats to the brink of all-out Marxism. Biden, the old-timer, pretend moderate, had seen the party pass him by. 

He had to get with the program. 

The question at a CNN-hosted debate in 2021 put Biden firmly on the defensive. It’s right there on the handy lower third of the screen. “Is Biden’s plan ambitious enough to tackle the climate change crisis?” 

One thing about Joe Biden: He’s always seen which way the political winds are blowing, and he always makes sure he catches the draft. Over his 50 inconsequential years in elected office, he’s always stood for one thing: the career advancement of Joe Biden. So, if the way to win the nomination is to destroy the oil industry, dammit, he was going to promise to destroy the oil industry. 

“Number one, no more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one,” Biden assured Bernie Sanders while the Vermont senator was literally picking his nose on camera (seriously, look at the video.)

Well Joe, mission accomplished. 

Don’t buy any of the “Putin Price Hike” garbage because one month ago it was inflation, three months ago it was Covid, and a year ago it was a conspiracy theory and fake news. 

This is what he promised to do, and he’s doing it. It’s the Faustian bargain he made to get the nomination handed to him while in his Delaware basement. 

You don’t like it? Buy a Tesla, peasant.  ✪

✪ The average American motorist will pay a record price at the pump on Friday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupts global energy shipments and gooses the cost of domestic gas.

The national average price of a gallon of gasoline was $4.17 as of Tuesday morning, according to AAA data. The latest numbers shatter the previous record of $4.11 established in July 2008.

Analysts are warning that prices could get even worse in the days ahead — especially if geopolitical tensions between Russia and Western nations escalate.

“It’s a dire situation and won’t improve anytime soon. The high prices are likely to stick around for not days or weeks, like they did in 2008, but months,” Gas Buddy analyst Patrick De Haan said. He added that Gas Buddy “expects the yearly national average to rise to its highest ever recorded.”

Rising energy costs are a key factor driving red-hot inflation in the US economy. Economists expect the upcoming Consumer Price Index to show inflation rose 7.8% in February — the highest rate in decades.

US gas prices have surged at a shocking rate. The national average was hovering at roughly $3.46 just one month ago and was just $2.77 per gallon one year ago.

Drivers living in high-tax states are facing the steepest bills. California has the highest statewide average, with prices already up to $5.44. In New York, the statewide average is $4.37 — also well above the national average.

As The Post previously reported, some analysts say US gas prices could soon reach $5 per gallon — and potentially far beyond.

The US oil benchmark was trading above $122 per barrel this week. Oil is expected to surge much higher if the US bans Russian oil and gas imports, further impacting an energy market that has struggled to meet demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, a top Kremlin official claims oil will hit $300 per barrel if the US and Europe proceed with a ban.

During his State of the Union address earlier this month, President Biden warned that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have “costs around the world.”

Biden pledged to “use every tool at our disposal to protect American businesses and consumers” and has already authorized the release of tens of millions of barrel from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But so far, those steps have done little to alleviate pressure on US households. ✪

✪ The Kremlin warned Tuesday that oil prices will surge to unprecedented levels if US and European lawmakers proceed with a ban on Russian oil and gas imports in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak warned that global oil prices could hit $300 per barrel in the event of an import ban. The top Kremlin official also suggested Russia could shut down the Nord Stream 1 Pipeline — a key supplier for Germany — in retaliation.

“It is absolutely clear that a rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market,” Novak said on state television. “The surge in prices would be unpredictable. It would be $300 per barrel if not more.”

West Texas Intermediate Crude, the US price benchmark, was trading above $122 per barrel this week after Secretary of State Tony Blinken and other US officials said an import ban was under consideration. Prices have already increased to their highest level since 2008.

An import ban on Russian oil and gas would mark the latest attempt by Western nations to ratchet up pressure on the Kremlin as violence escalates in Ukraine. The Russian economy relies heavily on proceeds from its energy sector, with shipments comprising more than 40% of the country’s annual revenue.

Novak, a key deputy to Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested it could take Europe more than a year to replace oil shipment volumes if Russia cut off access to its supplies.

“European politicians need to honestly warn their citizens and consumers what to expect,” Novak added.

“If you want to reject energy supplies from Russia, go ahead. We are ready for it. We know where we could redirect the volumes to.”

Analysts warn the price of oil could surge to $150 or beyond in the short term, depending on the severity of a potential import ban, The Post reported earlier this week.

The Ukraine conflict has led to further upheaval in a global energy market that was already struggling to keep pace with demand.

American motorists are paying record prices at the pump, with the nationwide average price of a gallon of gas reaching an all-time high of $4.17 as of Tuesday.✪

✪ “Well, you all imagined it,” Vice President Kamala Harris commented during a so-called clean-transit event, where she appeared with her fellow tautologist, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “That’s why we’re here today—because we have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make the possible actually happen.”

When Harris and Buttigieg get together, it’s Platitudicon. As it was this week, when, as the reality of imminent historic gas price spikes was hitting Americans, the duo spent the day promoting electric cars, the Green New Deal, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s soon-to-be-tightened emissions standards.

When it comes to energy, the Democrats adopt a bizarre elitist disconnect: Propelled by theological belief in end-of-days climate alarmism, they assume that Americans will join them in losing all sense of perspective and proportionality.

Despite the perpetual championing of electric vehicles, less than 1% of cars, SUVs, and light trucks on the road in the United States are electric.

The average cost of an electric car is $55,000. Even with layers of subsidies that artificially bring it that low, the average price of an electric car is around $19,000 higher than the price of an average gas-powered vehicle. The average Tesla goes for around $75,000. Leasing the Model S, not at the high end of the Tesla line, is still likely to cost you more than $600 per month.

Not everyone is pulling in Ocasio-Cortez bucks. Even if they are, they’re probably more concerned about functionality than pricey virtue-signaling.

Why would a couple with kids shun a perfectly useful gas-powered car that, until recently, could be cheaply fueled and easy to drive any distance and in any environment?

Fossil fuels are the most efficient, affordable, portable, and useful form of energy. And we have a vast supply of them. In recent years, the U.S. has become the world’s largest oil producer. There are tens of billions of easily accessible barrels of offshore fossil fuels here at home—and much more around the world. We have centuries’ worth of it waiting in the ground.

Four dollars a gallon is a choice. Every plan to fight climate change either creates fabricated markets to raise prices on fossil fuels or creates artificial scarcity.

President Joe Biden says this is the moment we become a leader in “exporting clean energy to countries all around the world.” The president wants half of new cars produced in the United States to be electric by 2030 (the year we will miraculously reach zero emissions), not because consumers demand them, but because technocrats decided to manipulate the market and coerce Americans to drive them.

Ford and GM promise to dramatically scale back gasoline-powered cars and become electric-car manufacturers by 2035 because government promises “investments” and subsidies. Car companies know they’re too big to fail.

And, in the meantime, let them eat cake. “Today, the average gas price in America hit an all-time record high of over $4 a gallon,” TV’s Stephen Colbert ($10 million yearly salary) joked. “OK, that stings, but a clean conscience is worth a buck or two. It’s important. I’m willing to pay $4 a gallon. Hell, I’ll pay $15 a gallon because I drive a Tesla.”

If sending envoys to Iran and Venezuela to beg for oil soothes your principles, so be it. But Colbert’s comment is almost as funny as Buttigieg telling Americans that “families who own [an electric] vehicle will never have to worry about gas prices again.”

Where do Buttigieg and Colbert believe the power used to charge those electric cars comes from? Over 70% is from oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear. Nuclear energy, in fact, is a cheaper and more practical alternative to revamping an entire $22 trillion economy than the high-minded, extortionately expensive proposals meant to cleanse the consciences of climate scaremongers.

Meanwhile, the same administration that argues that increasing domestic capacity and allowing more North American imports would have no immediate impact on spiking gas prices proposes that you buy yourself an expensive, impractical luxury item.

“Let them eat cake,” indeed. ✪

✪ White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese on Wednesday addressed the notion of increasing the use of domestic energy to stem the rising gas prices.

Deese argued on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that “no amount of domestic production we can do to reduce” global prices. He suggested the only way to fix prices would be “shifting to cleaner sources of energy.”

“What we’re trying to underscore is that in the short term, production comes back based on facilities and rigs that were in process previously or are close to production,” Deese outlined. “And in those cases, there is no constraint. There’s no federal constraint to bringing that production back online, and that’s why we’re seeing that production come back. As you say, it takes some time in some cases. But we’re seeing that production come back quite significantly. So, I think that’s the pragmatic conversation we should have about the very short term.”

“The medium and long term, I think … the path and the trajectory is clear — there is no amount of domestic production that we can do when we’re dealing with a volatile global commodity, where the price is set globally, there’s no amount of domestic production we can do to reduce or eliminate our vulnerability as a country to that volatility,” he continued. “The only way to do that is to reduce the energy intensity of the economy overall, which means shifting to cleaner sources of energy.” ✪

✪ The national average price for diesel fuel on Wednesday reached an all-time record high, impacting 3.5 million American truckers throughout the nation.

Rising 84 cents in one week, Wednesday’s national average hit $4.883, up 13 cents overnight, according to AAA.

Diesel transports about 70 percent of the nation’s freight tonnage, as just about all highway trucks are fueled by diesel engines, according to Diesel Technology Forum. About 3.5 million truck drivers and 711,000 trucking companies rely on diesel.

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The record-high diesel prices will likely increase the cost of everyday products, such as clothing, produce, paper products, building materials, and vehicles.

The impact on everyday items will also increase the record-high inflation. New inflationary numbers will be reported Thursday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday she is not expecting Thursday’s inflation number to be positive for American workers. Inflation is already at a 40-year-high.

“I want to know what specifically the administration has done, they’ve been working on that has worked to bring down inflation,” a reporter asked.

“We don’t have the data…we expect to see a high headline in inflation in tomorrow’s February inflation data,” she responded. ✪

✪ Democrats and Republicans at the federal and state levels are calling for a suspension of the gas tax in order to offset the rise in prices at the pump.

What sounds like a good idea is actually a political gimmick — and a dangerous one at that. A “gas tax holiday” could lead to temporary relief at the pump, as long as the cut in the gas levy was passed on to consumers at the pump. But somehow, it doesn’t always happen that way. Why? It’s complicated, we’re told.

In fact, independent operators are under no obligation to pass the entire savings from a gas tax holiday on to consumers. Plus, there are problems with funding critical infrastructure projects if the gas tax is taken out of the equation.

But there are ways to make up for the loss of revenue from gas taxes — some more politically palatable than others.

Pennsylvania’s 57.6-cent-a-gallon gas tax is the highest in the nation, just ahead of California’s. Corman said he is introducing legislation for a roughly one-third reduction through the rest of the year. The lost gas tax revenue would be offset by directing $500 million of federal COVID-19 relief aid to state police and issuing $650 million in bonds to ensure infrastructure projects remain funded. Legislation pending in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate also would offset lost revenue from a gas tax suspension by transferring an equal amount of general fund dollars to the accounts that fund state highway and public transit programs. The legislation is opposed by groups that advocate for road and bridge funding. They fear a tax suspension would set a poor precedent and become politically difficult to restore, if politicians are cast as supporting a tax hike when it kicks back in.

Since inflation and tight supplies are likely going to be with us as long as Joe Biden is in the White House, the idea of bumping gas taxes back to where they were before Russia’s invasion is politically dangerous.

But right now, states are flush with cash as a result of the federal government sending $350 billion with no strings attached to spend as they wish. So if there was ever a good time to suspend the gas tax, this is it.

On average, only about one-third of the value of previous gas tax cuts or tax increases were passed on to consumers, according to a 2020 report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association that analyzed 113 state gas tax changes enacted over several years. That’s because retail gas prices are influenced by complex factors, including the price of crude oil and supply-and-demand pressures.“The real problem with this approach at both the federal and the state level is that there’s no way to ensure that the people will see this savings when they go to the gas pump to fill up their cars, their SUVs and trucks,” said Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Yes, but at least it gives voters the sense that the politicians are “doing something about the problem.” Of course, it may not help at all. It may be just a dog and pony show that politicians are putting on for voters. But at least it’s something.

Over the next few weeks, governors and state legislators, as well as Democrats in Congress, will celebrate a suspension of the gas tax. But whether it actually helps is anyone’s guess. ✪