“The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah said that President Joe Biden’s presidency could stand or fall on whether gasoline prices continue to rise.
“It seems like everything these days is more expensive,” Noah opened his segment on Monday. “But there’s one price that people notice more than anything — and that’s the price of gas.”
Noah went on to detail how demand for oil and gas dropped precipitously due to COVID-19 related lockdowns. Noah said that even though demand had risen again because of the return to pre-pandemic life, it is not easy for gas producers to simply resume production, and it would take time to return to normal. The segment further found fault with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), playing a montage of clips from news outlets arguing that OPEC was withholding production increases in order to recoup its pandemic losses.
“The big question is, what can be done to lower gas prices?” Noah asked. “Well, the bad news for President Biden is not much,” Noah said before cutting to another montage of clips arguing that there was nothing he could do.
“What’s tough for Biden is that it doesn’t matter what else he does,” Noah concluded. “If the price of gas stays high, that’s that. He could sign all the infrastructure bills he wants, he could get everyone to agree on abortion, but all people care about is, how much is the black goo from the ground? Higher than before? Then get the f**k out of here. So it’s not exaggerating to say that his whole presidency, his entire presidency, could depend on whether gas prices stay up or go down.”
Americans’ struggles at the pump have prompted calls for the Biden administration to address rising gas prices. Eleven Senate Democrats sent a letter to President Joe Biden last week, urging him to “consider all tools available at your disposal to lower U.S. gasoline prices.” It called for “a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a ban on crude oil exports.”
“High gasoline prices have placed an undue burden on families and small businesses trying to make ends meet, and have proven especially burdensome as our constituents continue to recover from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the letter continued.
“We hope you will consider these tools and others to make gasoline more affordable for all Americans.”
To date, the Biden administration has not offered Americans a solution to rising gas prices. Biden himself told CNN’s Anderson Cooper at a town hall on October 22, “I must tell you, I don’t have a near-term answer.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm burst out into laughter when asked during an interview with Bloomberg how she planned to increase oil production in the U.S. “Would that I had the magic wand on this,” Granholm said. “As you know, of course, oil is a global market. It is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is called OPEC. And they made a decision yesterday that they were not going to increase beyond what they were already planning.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration admitted it was considering shutting down a pipeline in Michigan because of environmental concerns.
Gas prices have risen $1.25 per gallon on average since last year, and at one point rose to the highest average price since 2014.