WASHINGTON D.C., DC — A member of President Joe Biden's Council of Economic Advisers credits him and his administration for a trending decline in gas prices. According to AAA, right now the national average per gallon is about $3.40. In Maine, the average price per gallon is closer to $3.80.
"When Putin invaded Ukraine, we saw a real spike in the price of oil and therefore the price of gas," economic adviser Jared Bernstein said. "The president quickly released 180 million barrels of oil from our strategic reserves, and it was a rolling release. It wasn’t all at once. It took place over many months."
Bernstein said prices have dropped $1.60 a gallon over the last 24 weeks.
"We’ve been working with our European allies to cap the price of oil," he said. "The president has also talked to the oil companies about their role in sharing some of their elevated profitability with consumers at the pump."
Bernstein added that the Biden administration's focus has turned to renewable energy, as opposed to increasing oil production in the U.S.
"Our oil production is actually number one in the world right now," he said.
"Renewables are critical, both in terms of keeping the price down, and, of course, of pushing back on climate change and environmental degradation," Bernstein said. "Longer-term work in terms of electric vehicles, in terms of climate interventions, in terms of solar power and wind there you see the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan Infrastructure bill. All of those have historically significant investments in hastening the transition to affordable, renewable energy."
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Susan Collins and other lawmakers said the president's decisions, including cutting off the Keystone XL pipeline extension from Canada, are part of the problem behind regulating high gas prices.
"The idea that the president has to go to Saudi Arabia to beg for more oil to be produced, when we could have gotten oil from our neighbor Canada, just makes no sense to me," Collins said in an interview a few weeks ago with NEWS CENTER Maine. "In addition, his administration has made it very difficult to drill on public land, of which, there are many in the United States."
In March, a group of lawmakers, including Collins, sent a letter to the president urging him to increase the country's energy independence.
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