America Unspun

The Biden administration wants to phase out oil in favor a green energy, and at the same time is upset about rising gasoline prices, because it understands that rising gasoline prices is directly tied to the pocketbooks of ordinary Americans..

Gasoline prices as of this writing are somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.00 more than they were one year ago today. The president understands that higher gasoline prices as we are coming out of (we hope!) the COVID-19 induced economic slump hurt the economy as well as his agenda. In short – he understands that American hate higher gasoline prices.

This puts the administration in a peculiar quandary. President Biden has taken the unique step of asking OPEC (including Russia and Iran, by the way) to pump and market more oil, while taking steps to limit US expansion of oil production.

I am not an economist, but this seems odd to me in a time when American Citizens are out of work because of the pandemic and when we have the ability to increase domestic oil production, that the administration would buy imported oil.

In fact, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott pointedly informed the Biden Administration in a Tweet that Texas can help if the administration will “stay out of the way.”

To be fair, gasoline prices have been rising since the lifting of the first mask mandates over the Memorial Day Weekend. It seems that the administration is sensitive to the moods and needs of the electorate, particularly when it affects their bottom line, and I agree wholeheartedly. It does seem to be something of a knee-jerk reaction, though in that it seems that reaching out to OPEC to produce more oil so that prices can stabilize flies in the face of the Executive Order issued by President Biden on August 5^th that sets the goal “to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles”. Again, I am no economist, but that seems difficult to accomplish in only 8 years.

So, from my viewpoint, the message from the Biden Administration seems mixed. Is the goal cleaner energy and enforced, government mandated reduction of dependence on fossil fuel? Or is the goal short term price relief for American consumers (Voters)? Can the goal be both?

President Biden, as do most career politicians, ran on a platform of promises designed to entice voters to select him. His particular platform included his plan for clean energy and a move toward net-zero emissions by 2050. Depending on one’s political views, this is a laudable goal, and will certainly have profound effects on the economy. It will involve changes in how Americans live, and will involve profound changes in how we develop new sources of energy. It will also be relatively expensive, especially in the beginning, and will likely create new environmental challenges.

All that being said, here is the crux of the matter. President Biden must satisfy his electoral base in order to win re-election and continue to pursue his agenda. To do that, he must be sensitive to the the things that affect them directly, both in the short and long terms. By asking OPEC to increase oil production he shows that his resolve to move toward cleaner energy and net-zero emissions can be affected by the immediate need to retain the confidence of the electorate. It will be interesting to watch how ideals fare against the reality of a fickle electorate and the need to stay ahead of the attention span of an electorate that wants what it wants – which is not necessarily what elected officials want for them.