VICTOR JOECKS: Democrats trying to dupe voters on gas prices

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that President Joe Biden is planning to sell off more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The sale will include 14 million barrels from the 180 million he said he would sell earlier this year. The president is said to be considering dumping another 26 million barrels on the market, too.

The impetus for this is obvious. It’s a “bid to dampen fuel prices before next month’s congressional elections, three sources familiar with the matter said Monday,” Reuters wrote.

It’s the same reason Biden reportedly asked Saudi Arabia to delay by a month OPEC’s decision to reduce production. That wouldn’t permanently lower gasoline prices, but it would have just delayed increases until after the election. A side note: Where are all the Democrats who voted to impeach Donald Trump over his phone call with Ukraine? It seems some instances of quid pro quo are more equal than others.

On one hand, these desperate attempts to lower gas prices make political sense. This is the most visible sign of runaway inflation. The average price of gasoline in Nevada was $5.23 a gallon on Tuesday. Nationally, it was $3.87 a gallon. People pay for gas on a regular basis, sometimes even weekly. These higher prices contribute to strained family budgets. Credit card debt is up $100 billion or 13 percent from the second quarter of 2021. Voters want relief.

But on the other hand, this strategy depends on the public forgetting what happened over the past two years. In November 2020, the average price of gasoline in Nevada was around $2.60 a gallon. The national price was near $2.10 a gallon.

Let’s pretend the president’s blatant attempt to manipulate gas prices brings down costs by 50 cents a gallon in the next two weeks. Gas in Nevada would still be more than $2 a gallon higher than when Biden won election. Nationally, it would be up by more than $1 a gallon.

And prices would head back up shortly thereafter. Eventually, Biden will have to stop draining the strategic reserve to help his political fortunes. He’s going to have to restock it, too — and at a much higher cost. That’s going to put even more upward pressure on prices.

At the state level, Sheriff Joe Lombardo’s campaign said he supports a gas tax holiday. Gov. Steve Sisolak so far has not.

There is a way to permanently decrease oil prices — produce more oil. But there are significant startup costs to drilling a new oil well. Oil companies have been reluctant to make massive capital investments when they know Democrats want to do things like ban gasoline-powered cars. As a presidential candidate, Biden said, “I guarantee we’re going to end fossil fuels.”

If you want lower gas prices, you need to vote for candidates who support more oil and gas production. Otherwise, Nevada will be stuck with politicians who “oppose” high gasoline prices only when there’s an election around the corner.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.