In the final days of the 2022 midterms, President Biden and members of his party who appeared on the ballot have been trying to piece together a case to support Democratic voters and try to win over independents. But Biden’s irate, divisive speeches and apparent ignorance of the crises facing Americans haven’t worked. Now, in several key battleground states that will determine the balance of power in Congress, one of those crises is rearing its ugly head again: gas prices.
Biden and his spokesmen have tried to convince Americans that gas prices are falling — a clever half-truth that is true only when looking at a low slice of Biden’s time in office, but not when compared to gas prices where they were when he took office.
With Election Day just days away, even Biden’s recent claim that gas prices are falling has been debunked. The national average price for unleaded is $3.778, according to AAA, up from Wednesday and the average a week ago. Prices are rising even more dramatically in some key states as Americans fill their tanks in the final stretch of midterm elections.
In Pennsylvania, The York Dispatch excellent this week how,[a]After a dip from a summer surge, Pennsylvania gasoline prices have been slowly climbing in recent weeks.” AAA reports the Keystone State’s average price at $4,008, down from $3,932 last week and $3,769 last month. Pennsylvania diesel also jumped, now up $6,031 from $4,996 a month ago.
A similar upward trend is taking place in Wisconsin, where Republican Senator Ron Johnson is facing a challenge from Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes. The state average for regular unleaded is now $3.749/gallon, up ten cents from yesterday’s $3.643. Last week, WI gas averaged $3.571/gallon.
Battleground state Ohio also is seeing a rise in gas prices in the final days of the race between Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance. The average price on Thursday was $3,863, up from $3,822 on Wednesday and $3,642 last week.
While GOP candidate Don Bolduc is seeing a overdue surge in support in the polls against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, the average price of gas is $3,728, up from $3,571 a week ago and $3,383 a month ago.
Meanwhile, in Florida, where Sen. Marco Rubio is running against Democratic Rep. Val Demings for his seat, gas is now $3.435, down from $3.385 on Wednesday. A week ago, gas in the Sunshine State was more than ten cents cheaper at $3.320, compared with just $3.221 a month ago.
The price increases in these key states come about a week after the White House began raising the prospect of Biden tapping even more supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which has already been depleted to its lowest level since April 1984.
This is so blatant – they are specifically using the SPR to postpone the gas price raise until after the parliamentary elections.
The ship, titled “Will Responsibly Use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” sailed away more than a year ago. https://t.co/rouPvkibdZ
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 27, 2022
But as is usually the case with the “Democrats in disarray” routine, this ostensibly political decision to try to stem the price rise — after the Democrats’ so-called “green” energy transition has killed American energy independence — is simply another effort to try to stem the red tide that will hit America’s emergency oil supply next week. It is also an abuse of power by Biden to apply the SWP to facilitate his political party at the expense of the country’s readiness and ability to respond to a real crisis that was not of Biden’s making.
Biden’s actions were so drastic — again in response to the energy chaos wrought by Biden’s policies — that the SPR fell from a level of more than 638 million barrels of oil in January 2021 to just 399.8 million barrels by the end of October 2022.
In January 2021, the month Biden took office, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was about 638 million barrels of oil.
The SPR ended October 2022 with reserves of 399,800,000 barrels, the lowest reserve level since April 1984. photo:twitter.com/0MTtwhBLpS
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) November 3, 2022
