News and Commentary

Gas Prices Up Nearly 80% Since Biden Took Office

   DailyWire.com
A satirical protest sticker critical of American President Joe Biden, with text reading I Did That, has been placed on a gasoline pump in Lafayette, California, likely to imply responsibility for high gasoline prices, December 29, 2021.
(Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Capital lawmakers, politicos, journalists — along with glitzy Hollywood celebrities — gathered on Saturday night for the annual “nerd prom,” the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

The night of frivolity usually ends with a comedian lightly roasting the president and the press, and this time that role was filled by Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show.”

“I’ll be honest if you didn’t come, I totally would have understood yeah, because these people have been so hard on you, which I don’t get,” Noah said to President Joe Biden, who was seated on the dais. “I really don’t know, I think ever since you’ve come into office things are really looking up. You know, gas is up, rent is up, food is up,” he said to laughter, even from the president.

Noah sure got that right.

When Biden moved into the White House on January 20, 2021, a gallon of regular gasoline cost an average of $2.37, according to gasbuddy.com.

In early March, the national average rose to as high as $4.34. Today it’s nearly $4.20, the American Automobile Association (AAA) reported Monday.

“To be fair, gas prices moderated modestly toward the end of April, but remain above $4.00 a gallon,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said in a statement last week. “Since the start of the Biden Administration, gas prices are up over 80 percent.”

Addressing Biden directly, Holtz-Eakin said: “This record of futility drives home the basic economics of the situation: Either admit you want gas (and other carbon-based fuel) prices higher and sell it politically on the merits, or take some real, permanent action on domestic production that stands a chance of increasing supply enough to reduce gas prices.”

A chart compiled by gasbuddy.com shows that less than two months after Biden took office, the average price had jumped from $2.37 to about $2.85. A gallon topped $3 in May 2021, then soared to $3.25 by October. At the end of 2021, with the price nearing $3.50, Biden announced the U.S. Department of Energy would release 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

One website, DC Business Daily, has been keeping a “Gasoline Misery Index,” which “tracks how much more (or less) the average American consumer is paying for gasoline on an annualized basis.”

“According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in January 2021 the national average price per gallon of gasoline was $2.33. It has increased nearly 79% when compared to Friday’s national average price of $4.16. With a number that gasolinemiseryindex.com calls the Biden Misery Index, Americans are spending an average of $961 more per year on gasoline today since the president entered office in January,” the website wrote.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Gas Prices Up Nearly 80% Since Biden Took Office