The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) is demanding transparency from the Biden Administration to determine how its energy policies may be affecting the cost of oil and gas.
According to FGI, the Biden Administration blames the sharply increasing costs of fuel on profiteering by the oil and gas industry, but FGI has been denied requests to see Federal Trade Commission documents regarding their ongoing investigation of the oil and gas industry. This leads FGI to suspect gas prices are not a result of price gouging, but instead the administration's own energy policies.
In recent weeks, Biden repeated his contention that the oil and gas industry may be price gouging or profiteering, this time citing the Russian wartime circumstances. The FGI said that this statement simply reflects broader opposition to the domestic oil and gas industry or an attempt to shift blame from the federal government’s role in driving inflation higher over the past year. Although there is proof of pump prices being on the rise before the war in Ukraine, FGI said the domestic oil and gas industry appears to be a constant bogeyman for the Biden Administration.
In the midst of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and skyrocketing inflation and gas prices, the FGI said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is likely to be months into an investigation of the oil and gas industry. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records around the president’s November 2021 call to investigate the oil and gas industry, FGI was recently denied all documents from the FTC.
"Attorney General Garland’s FOIA memo issued last week highlights the obligation of federal agencies to release all information that is not strictly protected under the law," FGI Spokesman Peter McGinnis said in a statement. "Accordingly, FGI will be appealing the FTC’s decision to withhold all documents related to a possible investigation into the oil and gas industry.
"In the midst of record inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and after a year of shutting down pipelines and calling for a full transition away from fossil fuels, it rings a bit hollow that increased gas prices are anything but an intended result of the Administration’s current move away from energy independence," McGinnis said. "We will continue to seek access to records so the public can make up their own mind."
On Feb. 25, the organization announced that it is seeking full transparency from government agencies on the following areas: actions to slow gas price hikes using emergency powers; calls for investigating the meat and energy industries; efforts to hinder domestic fossil fuel production, halt pipeline approvals and shut down American mines; and considerations behind the decision to re-nominate a Federal Reserve chairman who has presided over 40-year highs in inflation.
In Nov. 2021, with gas prices and inflation already well on the rise, President Biden asked the FTC to investigate whether the oil and gas industry had been illegally profiteering or price gouging American customers, according to a Nov. 17 Tweet from the White House.
When Biden asked for regulators to investigate oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron were predicted to double their net income over 2019, USA Today reported. The paper also spoke with GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, who said "throughout 2021, but especially this summer and fall, demand has outpaced supply significantly, and that has provided the catalyst for why oil and gas prices have continued to go up."
Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) said the Biden Administration is to blame for where the country stands today amid high energy prices. "By effectively shutting down our own supply of critical oil and gas, the Biden Administration increased our reliance on foreign countries for our energy needs, increased global emissions and increased gas prices for American families," Newhouse said on March 8.
The FTC has two primary missions: protect competition and protect consumers. These missions are influenced by the basic statute enforced by the FTC, which empowers the agency to investigate and prevent unfair methods of competition, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce.
The variety of antitrust and consumer protection laws enforced by the FTC affects virtually every area of commerce, with a few exceptions.
FGI is a nonpartisan organization that works to demand transparency and integrity from government agencies and elected officials.
