Biden Urges Crackdown on Oil, Gas Firms Behind 'Illegal' High US Fuel Prices

© AP Photo / Damian DovarganesIn this Friday, May 20, 2021, photo, a fuel truck driver checks the gasoline tank level at a United Oil gas station in Sunset Blvd., in Los Angeles.
In this Friday, May 20, 2021, photo, a fuel truck driver checks the gasoline tank level at a United Oil gas station in Sunset Blvd., in Los Angeles. - Sputnik International, 1920, 17.11.2021
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Joe Biden has urged immediate action against oil and gas firms for what he branded as "anti-consumer behaviour", telling the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve the problem of gasoline prices remaining high at the pumps despite declining costs for producers.
"I’m writing to call your attention to mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies," Biden wrote in his letter to Federal Trade Commissioner Lina Khan, a copy of which was circulated on Twitter. "The bottom line is this: gasoline prices at the pump remain high, even though oil and gas companies’ costs are declining."
Biden said the FTC had the authority to investigate whether "illegal conduct" was costing US families more than what they should be paying at the pump. "I believe you should do so immediately."
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s main lobbying group, struck back at Biden, calling his letter to the FTC a "distraction from the fundamental market shift that is taking place" in energy markets where supply was struggling to catch up with demand.
"Rather than launching investigations on markets that are regulated and closely monitored on a daily basis or pleading with OPEC to increase supply, we should be encouraging the safe and responsible development of American-made oil and natural gas," Frank Macchiarola, the institute’s senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said in a statement.
Biden’s call for a crackdown against possible collusion in oil prices came as the Energy Information Administration reported that the US government drew down 3.2 million barrels last week from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (STR).
The Biden administration had been mulling the use of the so-called SPR for weeks now in a bid to cool pump prices of gasoline, which were also at their highest since 2014.
The Weekly Petroleum Supply-Demand data released on Wednesday showed that inventory levels of the crude reserve were at 606.1 million barrels at the end of November 12, versus 609.4 million on November 5.
The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, U.S., November 22, 2019 - Sputnik International, 1920, 07.11.2021
US Looking at Tools to Make Fuel More Affordable as OPEC Ignores Calls to Boost Output - Granholm
It is not known if the lower SPR stockpile levels cited for last week were a direct result of the policy being considered by the White House to bring the market lower. SPR releases are done at times to relieve short supplies from events such as hurricanes.
Pump prices of gasoline in the United States have risen sharply over the past year and have hit record highs above $4.60 a gallon in California this week.
The price spike came as global crude inventories remained in tight supply after the OPEC+ producing alliance repeatedly rebuffed calls from the United States and other consuming countries for more oil to match demand ramping up amid economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic
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