We need to check the fact checkers’ “facts” on gas prices

Pumping Gas

By Steve Levy

A recent fact-checking article published in Newsday (“Why are LI gas prices so high?”, May 22, 2022), which was intended to provide an impartial analysis of why our gas prices have skyrocketed, underscores just how biased, and outright wrong, many of these fact checkers are. https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?eid=327f598d-49ea-49ee-a1a3-6f314cfb4d9d&pnum=12

The analysis, from author Tory N. Parrish, exhibited a pro-Biden bias by attributing almost all the blame of increasing gas prices on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with no responsibility lying at the feet of the president. In fact, the author went out of her way to absolve President Joe Biden of any culpability in the closing of the Keystone pipeline.

Parrish correctly noted that the pipeline itself was not going to provide vast amounts of immediate energy that would make a tremendous difference in the near-term market. She quoted an energy analyst, who stated that the amount of oil coming from Keystone “would’ve been inconsequential.”

What Parrish conveniently omitted was the psychological impact that the pipeline cancellation had on the energy industry as a whole. The scrapping of the pipeline was a message to the gas and oil industry that the White House was going to block their attempts to increase production. Nowhere in the article was there any mention of Biden’s executive orders that blocked drilling offshore or on federal properties, including Alaska’s huge ANWAR region.

The Biden administration denies their actions have had any impact on gas and oil production, claiming that many already approved leases go untapped. But Parrish fails to acknowledge that oil and gas executives would be crazy to invest billions of dollars on speculative drilling, knowing that, at any point, a hostile administration will put the kibosh on their efforts.

There is no question that the war in Ukraine has contributed significantly to jumps in oil prices. But Americans are not stupid, nor are they blind. They saw for themselves with their own eyes that gas prices were escalating dramatically from the point Biden came into the office up until the Russian invasion.

The slowdown of American natural gas and oil production not only lessened supply for our nation, thereby forcing us to feebly beg our enemies to produce more, but it had a huge impact on the world market.

Decades ago, OPEC, Russia and other bad actors were able to dictate the price of oil based upon how much product they allowed onto the market. They were able to do so because they controlled the market in a near monopoly.

But the fracking revolution and deregulation here in the states allowed America to become the world’s greatest energy producer. That meant that we, not our enemies, would be setting the terms and prices on the world market. Neither Russia nor OPEC could hold back on supply because we had the capacity to make up the difference. We would put them out of business. They were not only forced to sell their product on the market, but had to keep it at a reasonably low price or else they would be undercut by the product extracted in America. Once Biden severely limited production from our nation, he placed the power back into the hands of the bad actors in the world.

The climate extremists caused this worldwide problem of energy inflation. We can easily reverse course. It starts with an end to President Biden’s war on the fossil fuel industry. Open the spigots so that we no longer have to beg Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and OPEC to produce more oil. Bring the cost down for all Americans and simultaneously make massive investments in research and development to make alternative energies more practical and affordable. We can reduce carbon emissions without bankrupting the nation.