The White House has repeatedly stressed that gas prices are going down by using a misleading metric that does not pertain to the vast majority of Americans.
The Biden administration cited $3.29 numerous times as the “most common price at gas stations” on Oct. 5 and 6, but 39 states in the country had average gas prices above that number “last week” (Oct. 3-9).
The White House told the Daily Caller that the Biden administration used GasBuddy’s “mode” of gas prices in the U.S., instead of citing the national average, which was $3.797 “last week” (Oct. 3-9), according to the website.
Although the White House’s metric is accurate, it does not represent the reality of what most Americans are paying at the pump.
Top 5 most common #gasprices in the US this morning:
$3.29 (most common)
$3.19 (2nd)
$3.39 (3rd)
$3.99 (4th)
$3.09 (5th)
Top 10% of stations $6.24
Bottom 10% of stations $2.96
Median price $3.54— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) October 6, 2022
Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming all had average gas prices above $3.29 “last week” (Oct. 3-9), according to gas prices posted by the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Average state gas prices were above $4 “last week” (Oct. 3-9) in multiple states including Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, and Utah, according to AAA’s gas price calculator.
Alaska had a weekly average of $5.343, Nevada posted an average of $5.483, and Washington had $5.307.
Californians were paying above $6 on average, at $6.382 a gallon.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed by Fox News’ Peter Doocy about whether or not President Joe Biden was responsible for the rising gas during his administration, given the president’s past victory lap when gas prices went down from their peak in June.
Jean-Pierre responded with, “it’s a lot more nuanced than that.”
A White House statement released Wednesday said Biden would “continue to direct SPR releases as necessary” in an effort to lower gas prices, after OPEC+ members voted to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was at its lowest level since 1984, Forbes reported in September.
Biden’s decision to release from the SPR came one day after Jean-Pierre said that the administration was not “considering new releases.”(RELATED: White House Pivots On Key Oil Issue In Just About 24 Hours)
As gas prices rise weeks before the midterms, White House officials “panicking” about the prospect of OPEC’s oil production cut, and Jean-Pierre called the decision a “mistake.”