WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has vowed to do everything in his power to fight record-setting gasoline and diesel prices, but he’s up against a stark reality: There are few options for taming the surge.
While Biden has unleashed an unprecedented amount of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, other tools at the administration’s disposal would come at the expense of environmental protection and have little effect on fuel costs stoked by strained crude supplies and a global shortage of refining capacity. And the one sure-fire fix — for Americans to stop driving so much — is largely outside his control.
“There’s no silver bullet,” said Benjamin Salisbury, director of research at Height Capital Markets. “Anything they could do is going to have knock-on effects, and they’re probably worse than the benefits.”
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