Gas prices have shot back up to record highs on President Joe Biden's watch.
The national average price for regular unleaded gas on Tuesday hit an all-time high for the second time this year at $4.37, according to AAA. The United States this March hit the previous all-time high, $4.33 per gallon. The return came even though the Biden administration opened the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to lower fuel prices.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the White House has blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin for soaring domestic energy prices and spiking inflation. But both have been on the rise since 2021—an outcome that even some liberal economists predicted after Biden injected trillions of dollars into the economy through federal stimulus. Inflation first hit a 40-year high in December.
Before the invasion, Biden blamed other factors for inflation and high gas prices, including the supply chain crisis and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has not commented on caps he placed on domestic energy production by closing the Keystone XL pipeline or on the moratorium he issued on new gas leases.
A poll in March showed that four in five voters wanted the president to back U.S. energy production after Biden tried to lower prices by banning Russian imports of oil and gas.