C&B Analyze Biden’s Energy Speech

BUCK: Biden just spoke about tapping the Strategic Oil Reserve. He’s trying to deal with soaring gas prices. There’s a lot going on here. Gonna spend a little time on it with you. First of all, even Democrats know that high gas prices are bad for their electoral prospects. They can spin a lot of things. But when people see close to all-time high prices at the gas pump, they think to themselves, “Hmm. Think we’ve got a little bit of a problem here.”

And they could be told, “Oh, no, it’s not… Don’t believe your lying eyes or the cash that’s leaving your hand or the credit card bill that’s getting racked up,” but they see the price. And they also are feeling the pain of inflation. And of course, all these things are related. So Biden’s announced he’s gonna tap the Strategic Oil Reserve, put out a million barrels a day here to try to ease the pain.

He’s also talking about — or I should say his conversation among Democrats around — trying to just send people checks in one way or another. I mean, they’ll call it a stimulus payment or whatever. They’ll come up with something. But they’re gonna try to just use the money gun because their policies ain’t gonna get it done. One thing they’re really against still is increasing domestic energy production.

This is where you find the ideological issues that Democrats have with things. They recognize the political challenges of high gas prices. They know that they gotta do something or else they’re in big trouble in the midterms. They’re probably in big trouble in any way, especially how bad it’s gonna be. But here, for example, is Biden proposing to fine companies who have “unused” oil permits. Speaking of Central Planning being crappy, here’s another version.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: This only sounds good, Clay, to somebody who is honestly like a little socialist who had no idea how a business actually functions, how investment in business infrastructure works. Is there even gas on these used leases? You say, oh, well, if there’s not, they won’t care about losing it. Okay.

But is it worth, at the prices right now that gas costs, for them to put the investment — is it a two-year or three-year investment process? It’s not as easy as just, “Why aren’t you drilling in the places that we told you you could drill?” If they could make money, I have a feeling, Clay, they’d been drilling there.

CLAY: Well, and also let’s just… This is all politics, right? Six months, 180 million barrels. That’s just in time for the election. Right? I mean, it’s so transparent. Biden has got 40% approval rate. The vast majority of the American public holds him responsible for inflation. The place where place hits people most viscerally… Buck, over the weekend I went and filled up my car. I was out to Little League stadium and my dad went to watch the games too.

And so my dad was in the car while I was pumping up the car, and on our drive out he said, “Hey,” and this is why dads and moms are great. Every time I see my dad or my mom, Buck, they give me like 20 bucks, as if…

BUCK: (laughing)

CLAY: I’m 42 years old now, but my dad’s always like, “Hey, you need a little cash. Here’s $25 or whatever.” But he said, “Hey, you need to make sure you fill up where we’re going to the Little League stadium because the gas is gonna be 40 cents the cheaper on that side of town 45 miles out of town compared to where you live now.”

It’s still over a hundred dollars, and my dad couldn’t stop talking about the fact that it cost over a hundred dollars to fill up my car. This is the place where people viscerally respond. It’s not a coincidence, Buck, that Biden is specifically releasing oil from the strategic reserve for the six months leading up to the midterms. He’s trying to do whatever he can for those six months to make gas prices lower.

Now, hopefully — hopefully — the Ukraine-Russia situation is going to get resolved and whatever excess is in the gas price market will just start to come down because this is a real tax on people who can afford it the least. But it’s a transparent political move that is designed to make people think things are not as bad as they are.

BUCK: Yeah, it’s really just like the government saying, “Hey, we’re just gonna send you some money every month now,” because the supply and demand issue is what’s setting the price where it is so instead of actually dealing with it in a meaningful way they’re saying, “Well, we’ve just set aside this oil before; so that’s federal government property, and we’re just gonna give it to you now.”

So you don’t realize that we’re gonna be back at the same supply and demand issue the moment that they stop, most likely. Who knows what the production will be in the future, but it’s very possible. But, Clay, then that also brings me to, you know, Pelosi, for whom the price of gas… Nancy Pelosi couldn’t tell you the price of gas off the top much her head, obviously. Hasn’t pumped her own gas, I would wager, in 50 years.

CLAY: Oh, that’s a great question.

BUCK: At least 40 years. She hasn’t pumped her own gas in —

CLAY: “When was the last time Nancy Pelosi pumped her own gas?” is a fantastic question.

BUCK: — yeah, at least 40 years, I’d say, maybe 50. And so, you know, she would probably be like, “Gas? That’s like two bits.”

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: She’d pull out a couple quarters, and then we have Pelosi also making it clear to everybody, she doesn’t know the price of gas; she doesn’t know what a gallon of milk costs. I can assure you of that, too, ’cause the servants bring her her milk. And here she is telling everybody we cannot increase domestic gas production — good heavens, no — ’cause that’s gonna hurt the climate change issue.

CLAY: So Nancy Pelosi is ridiculous. She’s making arguments that are the exact opposite, by the way, Buck, of what Biden said because Biden said we’re gonna fine people who aren’t producing more oil, and now Nancy Pelosi is saying we can’t produce more oil because it will cause an issue for the planet. Biden also continues this awful argument, the first person I saw who made it, Buck, was Mayor Pete.

Mayor Pete said (summarized), “Hey, if gas prices are too high, what you need to do is go buy an electric vehicle,” even though electric vehicles at best are $50,000 a year, and if you are struggling with the increased costs of gas, you’re unlikely to be able to buy a brand-new vehicle that’s an electric car. Biden says, though (summarized), “Hey, if you’re struggling with gas prices,” he just said this, Buck, “What you need to do is” what? “Buy an electric vehicle.” Listen.

BUCK: That’s not gonna deal with the problem. We want more American domestic natural gas and oil production. That actually helps the problem.

CLAY: Yeah, no doubt. And here is that cut, cut 28, that says how much a typical driver will save. Just buy an electric car, guys. If you’re struggling at the pump, Biden’s got the answer.

CLAY: If they just by an electric car, Buck, everything will be fine.

BUCK: I still hold to this, Clay. I think “Shut up about the high gas prices, peasant, and buy a Tesla” is not a great slogan for it is Democrats going into the midterms. I’m just… I don’t want to help them too much, but I think they should come up with something else.