Biden Vows to Strike Back at Price Gouging in US Energy Sector

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Joe Biden on Wednesday vowed to strike back against what he described as “price gouging” in the energy sector after a key inflation gauge grew at its fastest in three decades, driven by fuel prices that have more than doubled from the lows of COVID-19 crisis.

“Inflation hurts Americans’ pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. “I have directed my National Economic Council to pursue means to try to further reduce these costs, and have asked the Federal Trade Commission to strike back at any market manipulation or price gouging in this sector.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Labor Department reported that the US Consumer Price Index (CPI), which represents a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% during the year to October. It was the fastest increase in the CPI since November of 1990 - an acceleration driven mostly by pump prices of fuel running at seven-year highs.

Fuel oil prices alone soared 12.3% for October, part of a 59.1% increase over the past year. Energy prices on the overall rose 4.8% for the month and are up 30% for the 12-month period. At fuel pumps, a gallon of regular gasoline averages at a seven-year high of $3.41.

The impact of soaring fuel prices on an economy emerging from the disruptions caused by coronavirus pandemic measures has not been missed by the White House, which has tried in vain for months to clamp down on what it called potential “illegal activity” that might be inflating gasoline costs.

Biden is also waging a larger battle with OPEC+, the global oil producing alliance comprising the 13-member Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their ten allies steered by Russia - to try and get higher oil supplies onto the world market.

OPEC+ is withholding about six million barrels per day of regular supply from the market as part of production cuts introduced during the height of the demand decimation in oil seen during the COVID-19 crisis.

While a lot more oil is needed now with the pace of the global recovery from the pandemic, OPEC+ is only adding 400,000 barrels daily to supply, resulting in crude prices rising about 70% on the year to around $85 per barrel.

In August, Biden told the National Economic Council and the Federal Trade Commission to use every available tool to monitor the gasoline market, saying prices at the pump were not what one would expect in a competitive market.

Biden has recently signaled that he might release oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to cool the market. But analysts and experts in the energy sector argue that may be ineffective and may actually put US crude supplies at greater risk in the event of a real shortage emergency.