Cheney tries to link ‘skyrocketing’ gas prices, shortages to Biden’s oil and gas policies

CASPER, Wyo. – In front of a crowded field of challengers in the 2022 general electionUS Representative for Wyoming Liz Cheney is back in Wyoming to praise her commitment to fighting for the state’s oil and gas industry in recent days.

Cheney said on Twitter Tuesday that she visited Jonah Energy in Pinedale this week and took the opportunity to state that Wyoming’s oil and gas industry is “under attack by the far left and the heartless energy policies of the Biden administration in Washington “.

Wyoming politicians have frequently claimed that oil and gas policies under President Joe Biden’s administration could hurt Wyoming’s economy. Cheney attempted Friday to tie Biden’s energy policies to rising gas prices and gas shortages.

“From the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline to the ban on new leasing of oil and gas on federal lands, Biden’s energy policies are having devastating consequences,” Cheney said via Twitter. “We’ve already seen a glimpse of this devastation with skyrocketing prices and gas shortages hitting communities across the country.”

As Cheney tries to link gasoline price increases and shortages to the policies of the Biden administration, shortages in the eastern United States in recent weeks were due to a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, which has was temporarily closed on May 7 before resuming operations on May 12. .

This pipeline provides about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, according to the Associated Press, and the shutdown of gasoline distribution has had an impact on gasoline distribution, although there has been and qu ” there is not a shortage of global supply:

The closure of the pipeline has also had an impact on the price of gasoline and some service stations in the south-east of the country are still facing supply tensions due to the shutdown, according to AAA.

But the price effects of the shutdown have shown signs of abating.

“The national average has stabilized following the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, but prices at the pump are likely to fluctuate before the holiday weekend,” AAA said Monday. “Over the past weekend, the national average gasoline price fell by one cent to $ 3.03, the first drop in two weeks.”

That’s still $ 1.12 more per gallon than a year ago, according to AAA.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted oil prices, as did a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

“In January 2020, after experiencing a usual decline due to business closures for the Chinese New Year celebration, China’s oil demand continued to decline due to shutdowns linked to a pandemic nationwide. the economy, ”he added. the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said in an October 2020 article. “The demand for oil has declined by 3 million barrels per day, which is about 20% of the country’s total oil consumption.”

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread across the world, Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest oil producer behind the United States, urged members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to reduce their production. Having formed an alliance in 2016 with OPEC to control the price of oil through production cuts, Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer, has now resisted calls for further cuts in response to the pandemic. Russia has sought to gain market share by anticipating that the profitability and output of the US shale industry will fall in the face of falling prices. “

After Russia and OPEC failed to come to an agreement, OPEC began to increase production.

“By early April, OPEC had increased production by 1.7 million barrels per day, to a level of 30.4 million barrels per day, the biggest production jump since September 1990,” said the Minister. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The production boom coincided with an estimate by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that global demand for oil was down nearly 30 million barrels per day due to shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With demand declining, the addition of oil to an already saturated market led to a near-record 535.2 million barrels of crude oil inventories in the United States on May 1. “

The pandemic, the price war and the cyberattack are just a few examples that show the complex nature of fuel prices across the planet. Historical data shows that while gasoline prices in the United States are higher this spring than in recent years, prices tend to increase each year in the spring and summer:

Cheney isn’t the only politician trying to use fuel prices as an opportunity to condemn Biden’s policies. Last week, U.S. Senator from Wyoming John Barrasso also accused Biden of rising fuel and grocery prices, attempting to link them not only to Biden’s oil and gas policies, but to Biden’s oil and gas policies as well. spending as part of the US bailout.

Wyoming politicians aren’t the only ones trying to use crises or natural disasters to reinforce their message. Texas Governor Greg Abbott tried to blame wind and solar power and the “Green New Deal” for power outages that were largely caused by disruptions to fossil fuel sources amid the explosion in the Arctic in February, as explained by the Texas Tribune.

Whether the Biden administration’s oil and gas policies are having an impact on Wyoming’s economy, it has yet to start showing up in the tax revenue data. The Consensus Revenue Estimating Group said in its April update that the impact on Wyoming of the federal moratorium on Biden administration leases and the cancellation of federal lease sales “remains to be seen.”

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