Is Biden to blame? A look at the underlying problems behind rising gas prices
News April 4, 2022, Comments OffLately, the gas prices have been abnormally high; this is something that thousands of people have noticed already and is beginning to become a bigger problem. To even fill up half of an average-sized tank is around 50 dollars, and that’s using the cheapest fuel option. People have dozens of theories for this, one of the most popular ones being that it’s the current president’s fault, which is just simply not true. There is a multitude of reasons for this dramatic increase in price.
To get the obvious reason out of the way, one reason for this price increase is because of the increase in travel. During the first COVID-19 outbreak, travel halted, which in turn caused gas prices to fall dramatically. Oil companies also began to produce less oil because of this dramatic decline in travel. Since then, the prices have been slowly increasing as more people began to slowly return to a semi-normal life and begin traveling for work or even for vacation. It is your basic supply and demand scenario.
Another situation affecting the prices is the war that’s going on in Ukraine. Since the war has started, sanctions have been put on anything imported from Russia, which includes oil. Though the U.S. gets very little oil from Russia this ban on the import of oil still affects everyone because the oil market is so large now.
As for the president, lots and lots of blame has been placed on him for the prices being raised. People are very set on this being the sole reason for the raised prices. It is very common to see stickers of Joe Biden with the text “I did that” next to the price on the gas pumps. The truth of the matter is that oil drilling in the U.S. has increased since he became president. He also seemed to have been inaugurated at a big turning point in travel and work during the 2020 elections.
It’s very understandable that people are trying to find something or someone to blame in this situation. Gas prices have not been this high in a very long time and some people aren’t able to afford to drive anymore. It’s important that we do not spread misinformation about this and we understand that this is simply something we may have to wait out.
Article by Sophia Meek
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