Biden Just Took A Bad Energy Situation And Made It Worse

Americans know that gasoline prices are higher, home heating fuel prices are higher and there’s an emerging diesel fuel shortage in the United States. Higher fuel costs translate into higher costs for everything because trucks, trains, planes, and cargo vessels all run on fuel (mostly diesel.

Those higher fuel costs get passed along as higher prices for the goods being shipped, including food.

Joe Biden has done everything possible to destroy the U.S. oil and natural gas industry. This includes closing the Keystone XL pipeline, ending new oil and gas exploration leases on Federal land, handicapping the fracking industry with new regulations, and subsidizing inefficient alternative energy sources such as solar and wind turbines.

Biden has also drained the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 130 million barrels of oil in recent months out of a total capacity of 700 million barrels. The reserve is now at the lowest level since 1984.

All of that is in the books. The question is whether Biden can make things even worse. Of course, the answer is “yes” as described in this article.

Biden is now blaming the oil industry for high prices caused by his policies and threatening a so-called excess profits tax on oil company profits. Of course, Biden blames everyone for everything and never accepts responsibility for his disastrous policies. This is just one more example.

One reason gas and diesel shortages are emerging is the scarce refining capacity in the United States. We don’t put crude oil in our cars; we use gasoline. This is a refined product.

No new refineries have been built in the U.S. since 1977 and some existing ones have been shut down recently. Why should any major oil company invest anything in their own industry when Biden threatens to destroy the oil and gas industry?

Windfall profits taxes are nothing new. Jimmy Carter tried one in the late 1970s. Oil prices doubled. (That was after oil prices had already quadrupled in the mid-1970s).

When you tax something, you get less of it. It’s that simple. Biden’s windfall profits tax proposal will result in less oil and higher prices starting now. Get ready.

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