‘Economics 101’: Energy Exec Debunks Biden Claims On Gas Prices

An executive with an energy company debunked claims President Joe Biden made about gas prices during a Thursday afternoon Fox News appearance.

“As far as the president’s comments, I believe the president knows better. This is a supply and demand issue, simple economics 101,” Scott Hayes, director of government relations for PBF Energy, told “America Reports” co-host Sandra Smith. “Oil companies who we buy our products from, that’s the feedstock that goes to the refinery, from which we make all the great products we do, our gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and all the building block chemicals for the everyday things that you have in your life, virtually everything you can touch is derived from fossil fuels. Oil companies trade on a globally traded commodities market. They have no control over the price.”

While Biden blamed either Russian President Vladimir Putin or oil companies for high energy prices, some experts have said that Biden’s hostility towards fossil fuel production caused the increased prices for energy. The average cost of a gallon of gas is $3.836, according to AAA, compared to $3.357 a year ago and $2.1218 on Nov. 3, 2020.

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“Refiners trade in a globally regulated market that is a commodities market. So we are price takers, we are not price makers,” Hayes continued. “We have no more control over – let’s use ExxonMobil. They have no more control over the price of oil than does Apple or Google have over the price of their stock. It’s economics 101, and it’s all about supply and demand.”

“There have been these assertions over time, sometimes strategically from politicians of every stripe that there is somehow price gouging going on, collusion, and it’s been investigated many times, there’s never been evidence of that,” Hayes said, going on to say that to lower gas prices, Biden should lower the biofuel mandate, centered around blending ethanol into gasoline, claiming the mandate was “much higher than the infrastructure can handle.”

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

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