WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is under pressure to invoke Cold War-era powers to force more domestic oil production as the war in Ukraine strains supplies, raising gasoline prices and fueling inflation.
Lawmakers and labor activists have urged Biden to compel deployment of drilling rigs and solar panels using the 1950 Defense Production Act, the same authority wielded by Harry Truman to make steel for the Korean War and Donald Trump to spur mask production to battle the coronavirus.
So far, the Biden administration has shown little enthusiasm for the move. “It would basically be providing money to oil companies to do something that they already probably have the capacity to do,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
