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Why did gas prices spike in 2022 under Biden?
Executive summary
Gasoline hit a record national average just over $5 per gallon in June 2022 amid a global oil-price shock sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a post‑pandemic rebound in fuel demand; analysts and outlets cited crude oil price rises and supply disruptions as the principal drivers rather than a single U.S. policy action [1] [2] [3]. Domestic factors cited by critics—such as administration decisions on pipelines, leasing, or SPR releases—appear in reporting as contributory or politicized arguments, while independent analysts emphasize global market forces and pandemic‑era imbalances [4] [5] [6].
1. Global oil shock: Russia’s invasion and world markets drove the June 2022 spike
The immediate and widely reported trigger for the surge was Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted world oil markets and helped push crude and gasoline to record highs; the national pump price peaked in mid‑June 2022 just above $5 per gallon [1] [2] [7]. Commentators and analysts attribute a large share of the spike to that international disruption and the global response — including bans and reduced Russian oil flows — which tightened supplies and lifted prices [3] [2].
2. Demand rebound and pandemic-era supply constraints were already elevating prices
Prices did not rise from a neutral baseline: gasoline and crude were climbing as the global economy recovered from the pandemic, with demand rebounding faster than supply could respond. Reporting and analysis point to this post‑COVID demand recovery as a foundational cause that made markets vulnerable to the later Russia shock [3] [8].
3. Domestic policy and political narratives: what critics said about Biden’s role
Republican lawmakers and conservative organizations framed the spike as the result of Biden administration energy policies — citing actions like canceling the Keystone XL permit or pausing some leasing — and highlighted that retail gasoline more than doubled from early 2021 to mid‑2022 as political ammunition [4] [9]. These critiques emphasize correlation in timing and argue presidential decisions affected U.S. supply and investor sentiment [4].
4. Administration responses and experts’ counterarguments
The Biden White House pushed back, taking steps such as a record Strategic Petroleum Reserve release (180 million barrels) and public pressure on producers; analyses credited some modest downward pressure from SPR releases but said they could not fully offset global price drivers [6] [5]. Independent analysts quoted in reporting argued the president was “wrongly blamed” for most of the increase and pointed to global crude‑price moves as primary [5] [3].
5. Quantifying responsibility: mixed conclusions across sources
Fact‑checking and economic commentators reached mixed but consistent themes: prices rose substantially during Biden’s term (with the mid‑June 2022 peak widely reported), yet much of the rise reflected global forces — pandemic recovery and the Ukraine war — while domestic policies and stimulus had smaller, debated effects [1] [8] [3]. Conservative trackers stress percentage increases since inauguration; other outlets and analysts note that price trajectories were influenced primarily by oil markets and international events [4] [7].
6. Political impact and continuing debate
The spike proved politically damaging for the administration: outlets and opinion pieces described it as a “political nightmare” and Republicans repeatedly used gasoline prices to criticize Biden’s economic stewardship [10] [2]. At the same time, commentators documented that prices later fell from the peak and that some of that decline was associated with SPR releases and easing of immediate supply pressures [6] [5].
7. What reporting does not settle or detail
Available sources do not provide a single, definitive apportionment of how many cents of the pump price were caused by each factor (e.g., policy vs. global shock) in a unified, peer‑reviewed calculation; instead, they present competing emphasis — global markets and Russia’s war versus domestic policy choices and earlier stimulus — with analysts differing on magnitudes [3] [8]. Detailed econometric attribution beyond the summaries in these pieces is not found in the current reporting set.
Bottom line: the June 2022 gas spike reflected an interplay of a post‑pandemic demand rebound, constrained refinery and supply dynamics, and a sharp external shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; domestic policy choices and political narratives mattered for framing and short‑term mitigation, but major news analyses and fact checks emphasize global oil‑market forces as the central driver [1] [3] [2].