Schumer urges Biden to take skyrocketing gasoline prices seriously: 'We need immediate relief'

dqhall said:

Initially Biden banned new leases on Federal land and drilling permits.
https://www.usnews.com/news/busines...ds-new-oil-and-gas-leases-permits-for-60-days

He then approved permits for part of the Federally owned Permian Basin in New Mexico and some land in North Dakota in the Bakken oil field. These were exceptions to his promise to ban permits on Federal lands.

His administration may try to reform mineral rights leasing procedures to give the tax payer a better deal, but I think he is also pressured to please the zero carbon people.
Biden promised to ban new drilling on public lands. How's that going?

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So it's safe to say that Biden's mostly-unfulfilled promises are not to blame for the recent rise in oil prices that have been climbing since they bottomed out in mid-2020, months before Biden was elected:

Oil Price Charts | Oilprice.com

HARK! said:

I'm having apprehensions about trusting a source which claims that oil prices dropped to ~ negative $50. In other words people would pay me to take their oil off of their hands? This just doesn't strike me as credible.

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It happened, albeit briefly:
Oil prices went negative a year ago: Here's what traders have learned since

That article doesn't (IMO) explain very well why it happened. From what I recall from an explanation given by an acquaintance of mine who works in the financial sector, it was the result of a bunch of quirks of oil contracts that don't apply to other non-commodity securities like stocks, and certain investors trying to ride things out until the last minute and then getting stuck. IIRC, even though they get traded on open markets like stocks, oil contracts differ from stocks in that you can't just sit on them forever - they represent actual quantities of actual oil that at some point has to get delivered somewhere. And IIRC, something about those contracts (maybe the type of oil, I forget) also determines where it has to be delivered and with these specific contracts, they were supposed to be delivered to a specific depot that wasn't terribly large to begin with and was already, at that time, running close to capacity. A bunch of oil speculators were sitting on a bunch of oil contracts that were about to expire at a certain time and when they did, were going to require a whole bunch of oil (that none of the speculators actually wanted) to be delivered to a place that didn't have the capacity to accept it. Because they all waited too long, they had to dump their contracts at the last minute and tanked the price of oil for a day.

I'm sure somebody who's more familiar with commodity markets could correct some of those details, but that's the gist from what I remember.

Although even your source depicts Biden oil to be more expensive than at any time during the Trump Administration. Biden must love making profits for Big Oil.

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Just like Obama liked making profits for gun manufacturers, I imagine.

HARK! said:

I'm having apprehensions about trusting a source which claims that oil prices dropped to ~ negative $50. In other words people would pay me to take their oil off of their hands? This just doesn't strike me as credible.

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That actually happened.

Edit: Nija'd

Pommer said:

Hyperbole.

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Yeah I didn't mean literally. I was hoping people would understand.

They are killing us economically.

HARK! said:

I'm having apprehensions about trusting a source which claims that oil prices dropped to ~ negative $50. In other words people would pay me to take their oil off of their hands? This just doesn't strike me as credible.

Although even your source depicts Biden oil to be more expensive than at any time during the Trump Administration. Biden must love making profits for Big Oil.

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That is like blaming the pandemic recession on Trump instead of the virus. People bought large SUV’s and huge pickup trucks, commuted thirty miles to work and now they want to blame the government for the high price of gasoline.

There is a chip shortage and some auto makers shutdown gas economy car assembly lines. My brother bought a Tesla. He was told to wait six months for delivery.

If they shut down all the coal power plants people will be mad about the high price of electricity. All these resources are finite. England once had millions of tons of coal. Most of that is depleted, supplies exhausted.

The U.S. government is going to auction off Gulf of Mexico oil leases; hours after the climate talks:
Gulf of Mexico oil reserve auction will sell leases covering twice the area of Florida

rjs330 said:

Yeah I didn't mean literally. I was hoping people would understand.

They are killing us economically.

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No they aren’t. Unemployment is at record lows. Stock market is at record highs. We knew inflation was going to rise when the pandemic restrictions lifted.

FireDragon76 said:

"inflation is a secret tax" is the rhetoric of the monied class, who typically live off investments and corporate profits rather than personal labor income. In reality, wages are going up for ordinary workers.

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Inflation tends to also accompany wage increases.

Our free market republicans are worried about increased commodity prices during increased demand and inflation where conditions are that demand outpaces the supply of goods.

I always say that those that scream "free market" the loudest are the first to complain when they see any negative consequences of one.

iluvatar5150 said:

So it's safe to say that Biden's mostly-unfulfilled promises are not to blame for the recent rise in oil prices that have been climbing since they bottomed out in mid-2020, months before Biden was elected:

Oil Price Charts | Oilprice.com
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Weirdly enough, oil company's may be more hesitant about major investments when they have just spent years with relatively low oil prices and not getting any return on the investments they made prior to that.