President Joe Biden is warning oil companies not to raise gas prices in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
“Do not – let me repeat, do not – use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” Biden said. “My experts informed me the production of only about 190,000 barrels a day have been impacted by the storm thus far. That’s less than two percent of the United States daily production impacted for a very short period of time.”
The president also said that he has spoken with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to help those who were affected by the hurricane, adding that hundreds of FEMA personnel have been dispatched to the state and thousands of National Guard members have been activated.
“I made it clear to the governor and the mayors that the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible,” Biden said.
Large oil producers, including BP and Chevron, shut some offshore production in the Gulf of Mexico this week as Ian gained strength.
Biden’s remarks on gas prices were a complete 180 from earlier this week, when he lashed out at gas stations for allegedly taking a “long time” to lower the price of fuel in line with dropping oil prices.
“We haven’t seen the lower prices reflected at the pump though. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies are still making record profits — billions of dollars in profit,” he said. “My message is simple. To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump: Bring down the prices you’re charging at the pump to reflect the cost you pay for the product.”
Users online are theorizing that Biden is warning energy industry executives because he has since drained the oil reserves that are supposed to be utilized for situations such as this.
“Oil production has been shut down for safety reasons,” one user wrote. “Gas prices always go up after such disruptions anyway. Just imagine if the Gulf and Atlantic Coast were dotted with offshore wind farms. It would be years before damaged wind farms will be up and running, while it is only a few weeks for the oil rigs. Thanks, Brandon. You don’t have a clue.”
Since July, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been sending barrels of oil to Europe and Asia and will continue to do so until October.
