By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves sees an agenda behind the reluctance of President Biden to open more of America up to oil exploration.
Graves, a Republican, says the administration needs to encourage domestic oil production in wake of countries canceling contracts for Russian oil, but he says the president is bowing to pressure from progressive Democrats who oppose drilling for more oil in the United States.
“But this idea that we’re going to force people to have to pay more money at the pump so that they go buy an electric car or they go do something else or just quit driving altogether that is very bad policy and that’s exactly what’s taking place with the progressives, what they are pushing for and the administration who’s buying right in to that notion or idea,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Graves says the president needs to relax rules against drilling off shore or on federal land. He says the president also needs to authorize the development of more oil pipelines, rather than block their construction, such as the Keystone XL pipeline.
Graves says the infrastructure bill could have helped make ports more efficient rather than seeking lofty Green Deal policies.
“It’s policies like that that will continue to hamper the supply chain crisis which has an impact on inflation,” according to Graves. “It’s things like that that the administration needs to quit bowing down to the progressives or ultra-liberals and realize what’s good for the entire country.”
Graves does blame much of inflation on lingering supply chain problems.
“I don’t know whether the Fed raising interest rates is going to help,” Graves says. “Traditionally, they have called for that to try to slow inflation. Now, that hurts people when it comes to their refinancing or buying a home or whatever the case may be. If they are financing that home it’s going to impact on them when it comes to those interest rates.”
The U.S. hit another four-decade high for inflation. For the 12 months that ended in March, consumer prices rocketed up 8.5%. That was the fastest year-over-year jump since 1981, far surpassing February’s mark of 7.9%, itself a 40-year high.
Even if you toss out food and energy prices — which are notoriously volatile and have driven much of the price spike — so-called core inflation jumped 6.5% in the past 12 months. That was also the sharpest such jump in four decades.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.