Gas Rationing Again?

Do you remember the 1970s and gas rationing? Why would you want that? And why would you want oil from Venezuela rather than U.S. or Canadian oil?

Steven F. Hayward writes that Biden’s road to record-high gas prices may soon lead to rationing. "Gasoline prices at the pump have always fluctuated within a regular epicycle of global oil prices, but the Biden administration’s every policy choice from its first day in office has contributed significantly to this week’s news that gas prices exceed $4 a gallon in all 50 states. President Biden and the Democrats seem determined to repeat every policy mistake of the 1970s, and it might not end until Biden attempts to impose price controls and rationing.

Start with Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline on Inauguration Day. This act was more shocking than merely the loss of unionized jobs and an insult to our largest trading partner; it is the first time to my knowledge that any president has canceled a private-sector project that was already under construction.

It is one thing to block a permit; the government does that all the time. It is another thing to revoke a permit already granted absent some malfeasance, and there was none by Keystone alleged."

"Democrats on Capitol Hill are dusting off Jimmy Carter’s playbook and calling for an “excess-profits tax” on energy companies as well as price controls on gasoline and diesel. Plans for rationing will come as night follows day. These are the same people who just a few years ago said we couldn’t “drill our way out” of our domestic oil supply shortage only to see the nation do exactly that under President Donald Trump. President Biden, who was in office during the 1970s energy crisis, obviously learned nothing from the experience of the last 40 years."