The White House Is Already Trying To Take Credit For Falling Gas Prices. Here’s Why That’s Malarkey

A Biden administration economic official credited President Joe Biden’s policies for a recent decrease in gas prices despite the fact that the fall in prices is largely due to diminished demand and fears of a global recession, CNBC reported.

Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House council of economic advisers, said that the price of gas nationwide is down more 30 cents from its peak due to Biden’s efforts to increase the supply of oil in a TV interview Monday. The drop in gas prices is primarily because of decreased demand at the pump and growing fears of a global recession that are causing oil prices to fall, according to The New York Times.

Gas prices are dropping because of the administration’s tapping of oil supplies from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and its pressuring of the U.S. oil industry to boost output and refinement, according to Bernstein. However, Bernstein did claim that with domestic refineries pushed to the brink, there is little that can be done in the short term to ease the supply gap.

“This is just pure disinformation,” Institute for Energy Research Senior Vice President Dan Kish told the Daily Caller News Foundation about Berstein’s claims.

The national average gas price lies at $4.678 on July 11, dropping from its peak at $5.02 in mid-June, according to AAA data.

The White House is taking credit for gas prices that are roughly $1.50 higher than the same date last year and about $1.30 higher than they were in January, one month before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Following the Russian invasion, the U.S. imposed an embargo on Russian energy imports which led to a hike in fuel prices.

Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia this week to ask the nation to pump more oil to solve the current fuel crisis that is being exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Despite the request, the Biden administration is still moving to fulfill its aggressive climate agenda and place less emphasis on fossil fuel use.

“Biden has targeted American energy security from day one and he’s proving it by going to the Saudis to beg them for oil,” Kish stated.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.