NO. Gas prices are NOT high because "Biden shut down production"

[CousinIT]

My dumb sister just repeated this stupid long-debunked Facebook meme to me. "Oil prices are high because Biden shut down production! It wasn't like that until HE got there!"

THE FACTS:

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/mar/09/facebook-posts/oil-production-bidens-first-year-par-trump/

There are many factors at play in the steady climb in gas prices since Biden took office, including increased demand after pandemic lockdowns ended, inflation and, now, the war in Ukraine. But lower oil production in the U.S. isn’t one of them.

America produced 11.185 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2021, compared with 11.283 million a year earlier under Trump. The amount produced in Biden’s first year exceeds the average daily amount produced under Trump from 2017 to 2018, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Biden did issue an executive order his first month in office that paused new oil and gas lease sales on government land pending a review, but that order was struck down by a federal judge in June.

Despite claims to the contrary, oil production was unphased in the U.S. following the order. And cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline didn’t impact production levels, as many Biden critics have alleged. In addition, Biden has surpassed Trump in issuing drilling permits on public land, the Washington Post reported in January.

ALSO - corporate shareholders and Wall St investors are insisting Big Oil show "discipline" in spinning up new or more oil production. They like (obviously) those high rates of return on their stock investments. And corprats' first loyalty is to their shareholders - greedy as they may be. So WALL STREET is to blame as well for the ridiculous gas prices. More on THAT: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oil-production-prices-us-companies-wont-increase-2022-dallas-fed-survey/

[calimary]

1. A keeper!

[BlueBloodedAmerican]

2. Thanks so much for posting this. It just came in really handy with DH who said earlier today the

exact same thing about the cause of high gas prices that your sis said. He, too, saw it on Meta Mindpoison. I read him your whole post and completely shut him down. Very helpful!

[dem4decades]

3. The XL pipeline went directly to the Shell station near my house.

Biden shut down the pipeline, and the Shell station's price went up. See!

[NCLefty]

4. My mom repeated a Fox News conspiracy about Obama back when he was president.

And I had just seen it debunked on CNN because it was making the rounds so much.

My dad, who was listening to Limbaugh at the time, was sitting there. I tried to show them the CNN video but just wound up feeling like an idiot. I don't try anymore, and that's OK. 😎

[wishstar]

5. Last night ABC News explained how low demand during Covid caused oil industry to shut down

production and how oil companies have been slow to ramp back up once things reopened and are raking in record profits making up for lost revenue during Covid shutdown.