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Shop NowExperts are calling out Joe Biden over a tweet sent out on Wednesday, March 16th that purports to show crude oil prices decreasing as gas prices increase.
“Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should be too,” the tweet says alongside a chart that measures oil and gas prices by week since February 1st. “Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.”
Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too.
Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it’s $4.31.
Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/uLNGleWBly
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 16, 2022
Experts, including Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas, energy consultant Bob McNally, and Federal Reserve economist Garrett Golding, derided Biden’s claim.
“There’s always a multi-week lag between global crude oil and domestic pump price changes, Mr. President,” McNally tweeted, recommending that Biden ask the Energy Information Administration “to explain these realities to you and your staff.”
There's always a multi-week lag between global crude oil and domestic pump price changes, Mr. President. If these recently lowered crude prices stick, pump prices should follow. Recommend asking @EIA to explain these realities to you & your staff. Gouging is not an issue, sir.
— Bob McNally (@Bob_McNally) March 16, 2022
Meanwhile, Blas used the same data that Biden used in his chart to make a chart that shows the oil price far exceeding the gas price.
I see the White House chart is sourced to Bloomberg LP data. As a public service, I'm going to suggest a different chart. Mine has some of the same elements (WTI oil and retail US gasoline price), but instead I normalized it, and use Dec 1, 2021 = 100. #OOTT #CrackMargins https://t.co/JWVbsvI1o3 pic.twitter.com/F5v9MQH5uw
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) March 16, 2022
“My chart is nearly as bad as the White House’s one—emphasis on nearly!” Blas wrote in a follow-up tweet. “The point is both are #ChartCrimes. You can fit almost any narrative into a chart.”
And Golding referred to Biden’s claims as “misinformation” in a Twitter thread, noting that gas prices are “catching up to make up for what happened over the past two weeks.”
The difference in prices is “not price gouging or a grand plot by the industry,” Golding wrote. “This is how the business functions.”
Biden’s tweet appeared to be plagiarized (no surprise there from his history of plagiarism) from a viral tweet sent out 24 hours earlier by Warren Gunnels, the Budget Committee staff director of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), that used the same numbers to argue that “damn corporate greed” is actually responsible for high gas prices.
In recent weeks, Biden has blamed oil and gas companies, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for price increases in an effort to distract from his administration’s policies.
Biden canceled the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and instituted a moratorium on new gas leases, and his allies in Congress pushed oil companies to decrease output, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Gas and oil prices started spiking before the Russian invasion. He can’t keep pushing the blame and responsibility onto other sources… He needs to own his mistakes.
