Pledging to bring gas prices down by any means necessary is a lose-lose prospect for both the planet and the Biden administration. For one, it’s out of Biden’s hands. Production decisions in the U.S. are made entirely by private companies; the White House can give them cheap land and tax breaks and ask CEOs nicely to help bring down prices by refining and drilling more. But it can’t make them do it. Even if it could, other oil-producing countries have more reliable mechanisms for shifting markets in one direction or the other. One major reason why prices have been higher recently is because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a global alliance of countries that attempts to coordinate oil production and prices, decided to cut supply this summer. That’s largely seen as an attempt by OPEC members to look out for their own domestic priorities, given how heavily oil revenues backstop public budgets in those countries.
There’s no world, either, in which Republicans give Biden credit if prices do come down. By almost any metric, the Biden administration has been an extraordinarily good one for oil and gas companies, which enjoyed record profits last year. Though the administration has rolled back some Trump-era expansions of oil and gas drilling—it recently announced it would cancel leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—it’s offered major handouts to the fossil fuel industry, including the prospect of long-term price stability as it refills the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. None of that has stopped the GOP from persecuting the White House and Biden over some alleged war on cars and American energy producers.
There are obvious reasons why presidents harp on wanting to get gas prices down, especially with a general election coming up; it’s one of the core metrics voters use to judge how the economy is doing. The White House, though, isn’t in a position to change gas prices one way or the other. It certainly won’t reap many political rewards if they slide.