President Joe Biden’s actions show he “doesn’t care” about rising gas prices, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Thursday as prices at the pump continued to reach record highs.
“Americans are struggling with record gas prices – up over 50% since Biden took office – but he doesn’t care,” the governor said.
“Rather than expand domestic energy production, he continues to reduce U.S. production capacity (increasing our reliance on foreign oil) by canceling our oil & gas leases,” he added:
His remarks follow news of President Biden canceling oil and gas lease sales in both Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico as Americans continue to feel the pain in their pockets at the gas pump under Biden’s leadership.
“Cook Inlet lease sale would not proceed due to insufficient industry interest,” a spokesperson for the Interior Department said this week, adding that the lease sales in the Gulf will not proceed due to “contradictory court rulings on the leases”:
When the president first took office in 2021, he signed an executive order freezing all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands only to have it struck down by Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee. After appealing the ruling, a Washington, D.C. District Court “invalidated another Gulf of Mexico lease sold by the federal government, lease 257.” The Alaska ruling affects a separate lease than the ones named by the Interior Department spokesperson.
The U.S. national gas price average broke another record on Thursday, reaching $4.418. That is up from $4.37 on Tuesday — another record setting day. On Friday, they rose yet again, reaching an average of $4.432.
Floridians will experience some reprieve in October, as DeSantis signed a $1.2 billion tax relief package, which includes gas tax relief for the month of October.
“We’re doing $200 million in gas tax holiday, so that will reduce the fuel tax on October 1st by about 25 cents a gallon,” DeSantis said at the time.
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