President Biden came into office promising to tackle the climate crisis. The president has been pushed to embrace oil by the rising gas prices.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden traveled to Iowa, where he announced that the EPA would allow the summertime use of E15, which contributes to smog during the warmer months. Mr. Biden said that his government would waive the regulation in order to lower the price of gasoline.
I'm committed to whatever I can do to help, even if it's an extra buck or two in the pockets. He said that when you have a choice, you have competition. You have better prices when you have competition.
The latest move by Mr. Biden's White House is contrary to the promises he made as a presidential candidate to shift the United States away from fossil fuels. The price of gas has changed his thinking. The average cost of a gallon of gas was $3.3 in October and $4.3 in March.
The president proposed a new policy last month that would force oil companies to drill for oil on unused land if they want. Why aren't they pumping oil? Mr. Biden announced the sale of 180 million barrels of oil from the country's strategic reserve over the next six months.
Mr. Biden said that it would provide a historic amount of supply.
Mr. Biden has been careful since the sanctions on Russian oil and gas. The president has sought to assure his political base that meeting the needs of today won't distract from the longer-term goal of moving away from the fossil fuels that drive dangerous climate change.
The president's embrace of oil underscores his awkward position between two competing priorities: the imperative to reduce America's use of fossil fuels and the pressure to respond to the rising price of gas.
Barry Rabe, a professor of political science, said that when Joe Biden started his term, he didn't think he'd be using the strategic petroleum reserve or flying off to approve E15 waivers.
The president's allies say that his short-term, pro-oil actions could further disillusion the environmental voters who Democrats need to turn out for congressional elections.
Mr. Rabe said that climate voters are likely to be underwhelmed.
The recent actions of Mr. Biden have caused criticism in the environmental community. The decision to waive the summertime ban on E15 is driving us deeper into the hole of dirty fossil fuel mixtures, according to the managing policy director for the lobbying arm of the nonprofit group Food and Water Watch.
White House officials denied that Mr. Biden had shifted to fossil fuels. They note that his environmental policies have always envisioned a continued reliance on oil and gas while the country transitions to cleaner energy sources.
The current energy crisis is an example of why Congress and Republicans should support moving to alternate forms of energy.
A White House spokesman said that families need to take their kids to school and go to work and sometimes that requires gas.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has announced funding to make homes energy efficient, launched a new program and the president will invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage domestic mining of minerals required to make batteries for electric vehicles.
Lobbyists for the oil and gas industries argue that high gas prices are due to Mr. Biden's climate agenda, and that if the White House had not pursued programs aimed at moving the country toward other forms of clean energy, prices would be lower.
"Don't blame the gas prices on Putin," McConnell said on Fox News.
The shutdown of the fossil fuel industry is the reason for it. They go after them in a lot of different ways.
Mr. Biden's climate agenda has had limited success because of opposition from Republicans and the energy industry. It is not easy to blame the higher gas prices on the proposals that have yet to be enacted.
$300 billion in tax incentives was proposed by Mr. Biden. The nation's emissions could be cut in half by the year 2030. The legislation passed in the House, but was held up in the Senate due to opposition from Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin.
The oil industry has maintained that suspending new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters hurts production. The policy was stopped by the courts and Mr. Biden auctioned off more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.
The decision to allow the sale of the blend in the summer would shave 10 cents off the price of a gallon of gas at 2,300 stations in the country, officials said.
NACS says that's a small percentage of the 150,000 gas stations in the country.
The fastest rate of inflation since 1981 was caused by energy prices, and Mr. Biden faces growing pressure to bring them down. A gallon of gas cost $4.10 on Tuesday.
For years, gasoline has been mixed with some types of Ethanol to reduce reliance on oil. Smog can be caused by the blend's higher volatility. Lifting the summertime ban has been objected to by environmental groups. Oil companies are worried that greater use of ethanol will cut into their sales.
Economists are debating how much of a factor the presence of ethanol has on fuel prices. The decision is likely to have bigger political benefits than financial ones.
David Victor is a climate policy expert at the University of California, San Diego.
Some energy experts argue that the environmental benefits of bio fuels are overstated by the way they push up food and corn prices.
Corn state lawmakers and industry leaders are urging Mr. Biden to fill the gap created by the United States ban on Russian oil exports. The decision was called a major win for energy security by the CEO of Growth Energy.
Tiernan Sittenfeld is the senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters.
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