“The crisis facing the families deserves immediate action,” the president wrote in a letter to major oil refineries. “Your companies need to work with my government to come up with concrete, short-term solutions to the crisis.” Nationwide gas prices are averaging about $ 5 a gallon, a financial burden for many Americans and a political threat to the president’s fellow Democrats running in the by-elections. Wider inflation began to rise last year as the US economy recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, but accelerated in recent months as energy and food prices rose after Russia invaded Ukraine and disrupted world commodity markets. The government said on Friday that consumer prices had jumped 8.6% from a year earlier, the worst increase in more than 40 years. The President sends the letter to Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Chevron, BP and Shell. Biden also instructed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to convene an emergency meeting and consult with the National Petroleum Council, a federal energy advisory group. Biden is asking each company to explain to Granholm any decline in refining capacity since 2020, when the pandemic began. It also wants companies to provide “any specific ideas that would address the immediate issues of inventory, pricing and refining capacity in the coming months – including refinancing measures to bring the refined product to market”. The draft letter notes that gas prices averaged $ 4.25 a gallon when oil was last close to the current price of $ 120 a barrel in March. The 75-minute difference in average gas prices in just a few months reflects both the refinery’s lack of capacity and profits “currently at the highest levels ever recorded,” the letter said. As Biden sees it, refineries are exploiting the uncertainties caused by “a time of war.” His message that corporate greed contributes to higher prices has been controversial among many economists, but the claim may have some repercussions for voters. Some liberal lawmakers have proposed cracking down on corporate profits amid higher inflation. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, proposed a 95% tax on profits in March that exceeded company pre-pandemic averages. The president harshly criticized what he saw as speculative in the midst of a global crisis that could potentially push Europe and other parts of the world into recession. “It simply came to our notice then [Russian president] “Vladimir Putin is primarily responsible for the intense economic suffering of the American people and their families,” Biden said in a statement. “But in the midst of a war that has pushed gasoline prices above $ 1.70 a gallon, the refinery’s historically high profit margins are exacerbating this pain.” The letter states that the administration is ready to “use all the reasonable and appropriate tools of the Federal Government and the emergency authorities to increase the capacity and production of the refinery in the short term and to ensure that every part of this country is properly supplied.” He notes that Biden has already released oil from the US strategic stockpile and raised ethanol mixing standards, although neither action has put downward pressure on prices.
