Biden Leases Federal Lands For Fossil Fuel Extraction As Republicans Blame Him For Gas Prices

President Biden is leasing federal lands to fossil fuel companies at a rate the Trump Administration could only dream of, but in spite of this clear contradiction of his campaign promises, the Republican Party is still blaming him for high gas prices. The President does not control gas prices, and the policies of this administration have had ZERO impact on them, but Republicans will never let a good lie die. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's really happening and why both Biden and Republicans are wrong.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Well folks it's happening all across America. It's happening in Congress. It's happening in conservative media. It's happening in conversations with your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers, Republicans and conservatives are blaming Joe Biden for gas prices being so darn high here in the United States. Truth is they're really not that much higher than usual. And they're certainly not at the highest level they've ever been. So, alright. Not to mention the fact, and I think this is the most important thing that we should talk about, the president doesn't set gas prices and there isn't a single policy so far that has come out from the Biden administration that has affected gas prices in the least. And I know Republicans at that point will jump on it and say, oh, you're so wrong, Farron, you should learn about the Keystone XL pipeline that he shut down earlier this year.

Oh, you mean the pipeline that wasn't in operation? You mean the pipeline that was carrying Canadian tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast to be shipped out overseas? That one? Yeah. That had no effect on gas prices here in the United States. As I said, most of it wasn't operational to begin with. Like it wasn't even a thing. It wasn't a thing. I have been writing about, I have been giving interviews, I have been taking interviews on the Keystone XL pipeline for over a decade. Like that one's right in my wheelhouse and I absolutely love talking about the Keystone XL pipeline. And I'm glad that I don't have to talk about it anymore except of course, to debunk idiotic right wing talking points about it somehow affecting gas prices here in the United States. But let's be honest. Conservatives don't care. They don't wanna understand the economics behind gas prices.

So I'm gonna throw out a couple numbers that maybe even the most ardent conservatives in this country can understand as we face a time of rising gas prices. While rising gasoline prices have adversely affected millions of working people in the US, the world's big fossil fuel corporations have benefited immensely raking in a combined $174 billion in profits during the first nine months of this year. In the third quarter of 2021 alone, two dozen of the most profitable oil and gas companies, a group that includes Shell, BP, Exxon and Chevron, recorded $74.9 billion in net income, net income in third quarter. Gas prices are artificially higher right now because oil companies can do it and they're the ones getting all the profits. That has nothing to do with Joe Biden. That has everything to do with corporate greed. Here's another fact that conservatives are conveniently overlooking, but Democrats are paying attention to because it's frigging horrible.

Public Citizen showed in a report this week that since Biden took office, the interior department's bureau of land management has approved an average of 333 oil and gas drilling permits per month this year, 40% more than it did in the first three years of Trump's presidency. So we're about to have more drilling than ever, you know, we actually that during the Obama administration. We're about to go back to that, 333 permits per month, 333 per month. Not just 333 new permits for drilling on federal lands this year, 333 per month.