Who would have thought shutting down oil drilling in the U.S. would end up having negative consequences in an election year?
It seems that President Joe Biden and his administration failed to consider those consequences, at any rate, seeing as experts are predicting a surge in gas prices in the coming months.
Given that the November elections are perilously important for Biden and his Democratic Party, this news couldn't come at a worse time for them.
Reuters reported Thursday that major refinery outages are mainly to blame for the projected spike in U.S. gas prices -- which already have increased 9 percent since the start of the year (averaging $3.412 on Thursday, according to AAA).
It also cited other contributing factors.
For one, according to Reuters, our stockpile of gasoline has fallen by 5.7 million barrels. In addition, drone strikes in Russia by Ukrainian forces have further affected our supply.
"There is every reason to believe gasoline prices will screech even higher going forward," said Tom Kloza, head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service.
But wait, you might ask, what about U.S. production?
Why are we relying so heavily on a politically unstable country like Russia?
Well, Reuters offered a partial explanation, citing its September report that environmental activists and conservatives alike were incensed by Biden's plan to slash offshore gas and oil leasing.
The activists accused the president of undermining the climate goals outlined in his misnamed "Inflation Reduction Act."
Meanwhile, gas companies and conservative politicians noted that cutting oil drilling would increase fuel prices, hurting the economy and the lives of ordinary Americans.
As Mike Summers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said at the time, "For decades, we've strived for energy security and this administration keeps trying to give it away."
And now we're seeing the further consequences of the Biden administration's moves to cut U.S. oil production.
In 2020, when Donald Trump was president, gas prices were the lowest they had been since 2016, averaging $2.17 a gallon.
They stood at $2.39 the day Biden took office -- Jan. 20, 2021.
He immediately took action to cut U.S. production and supply in the name of climate change, issuing an executive order on Inauguration Day to curtail oil and gas drilling and revoke the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
Unsurprisingly, gas prices shot up, reaching a peak of $5.016 in June 2022, according to AAA.
While the current average of $3.412 a gallon is not bad in comparison, the overall increase under Biden is a very visible metric that Americans notice -- and experts believe it soon will be even more glaring.
If not for climate activism virtue-signaling, we could be producing much more oil and thus be less reliant on countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia for our oil.
Instead, we're facing a supply pinch that could affect this fall's elections.
One thing's for sure: Biden can't say no one warned him this would happen.
