China News Service, November 18th. According to US media reports, US President Biden asked federal regulators on the 17th local time to investigate whether oil and gas companies have conducted "illegal operations" to profit from high gasoline prices.
On March 25, local time, U.S. President Biden held the first official press conference in more than 60 days since he took office, answering hot issues such as border crisis, gun control, and infrastructure planning.
Since the summer of 2020, oil prices have soared across the United States, which, together with the price hikes of other consumer goods, has caused record-breaking inflation.
On the 17th, Biden wrote to the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Kahn, stating: “There is more and more evidence that oil and gas companies are acting unfavorably to consumers.”
He wrote: "Although the cost of oil and gas companies is declining, gasoline prices on the consumer side are still high. The Federal Trade Commission has the power to investigate whether there is improper behavior that makes people spend more when refueling. I think you should immediately Get started."
According to data from the American Automobile Association AAA, the average oil price in the United States this week was US$3.41 per gallon, which was US$1.29 higher than the same period last year.
Among them, the average oil price in California is as high as $4.687 per gallon.
Biden pointed out in the letter that the retail price of oil is usually not correlated with the price of finished gasoline.
But last month, the price of the latter fell by 5%, while the price of the former rose by 3%.
"This unexplainable huge gap is obviously much higher than the pre-epidemic average, and oil and gas companies are creating huge profits," Biden wrote.
He has not mentioned the two largest oil companies by name, saying that their expected net income this year will nearly double that of 2019.
According to media reports, the two largest oil and gas companies currently are ExxonMobil and Chevron.