Biden Is Running Out of Options to Tame Soaring Gasoline Prices

  • US average retail gasoline prices are at record high: AAA data
  • Gasoline demand has started to show signs of softening

President Joe Biden

Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg

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President Joe Biden has vowedBloomberg Terminal 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 US 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.