Biden Could Help Lower Your Energy Bills As White House Says Companies' High Prices Amid Falling Input Costs 'Unacceptable'

President Joe Biden will soon call on energy companies to pass through lower costs to consumers "right away" as higher gas prices continue to be an overhang on his administration ahead of the mid-term elections.

“The profit that energy refining companies are now capturing on every gallon of gasoline is about double what it typically is at this time of year, and the retailer margin over the refinery price is more than 40% above the typical level,” the White House said.

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These outsized industry profit margins – adding more than $0.60 to the average price of a gallon of gas – have kept pump prices higher than they should be, the White House said in a statement. 

“Keeping prices high even as input costs fall is unacceptable, and the President will call on companies to pass their savings through to consumers – now,” it said.

Oil prices settled lower on Tuesday. The United States Brent Oil Fund BNO closed over 1.5% lower while the Vanguard Energy Index Fund ETF VDE closed 0.8% higher.

Emergency Reserves: The Biden administration is planning to release 15 million barrels from U.S. emergency reserves and is likely to consider significantly more this winter, the White House has said.

This will be the final tranche of oil from a program commenced by the White House to release a total of 180 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to tackle high gas prices stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine among other factors, the report said.

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