A permanent policy of higher prices?

Research from the Wall Street Journal reveals that the Biden administration has leased less federal land for drilling than any other administration going back to the very beginning of the government’s modern oil-and-gas program. Though this is the result of a deliberate policy decision made by President Biden, that has not stopped him from trying to spin the rise in gas prices positively, calling it part of “an incredible transition that is taking place.”

“God willing, when it’s over,” he continued, “we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels.” The only catch is that, in the meantime, the poor and working class will be crushed. And in fact, that is already happening.

These oil-and-gas leases provide our country with a portion of the natural gas that heats half of our homes and powers almost 40 percent of our electrical grid, as well as the petroleum that is refined to fill our tanks (gasoline), run our grills (propane), and keep us warm—especially in the northeast (heating oil).

What this means is that when the cost of fossil fuels rise, the cost of electricity and other utilities rise with it—and no one is hit harder by these rising energy costs than the poor.

While the average household spends about seven percent of its income on utility bills, the poorest households spend almost three times that—nearly one-fifth of their income just to keep the power on and their homes heated. That’s not even counting the amount paid for gasoline: the average American pays seven percent of his income topping off his vehicle, and other studies show that those making less than the national average spend up to twice as much a share of their annual budget on gasoline as those making $200,000 or more.

One in six American households is behind on its utilities payments, one in ten households is already setting their home temperature to unhealthy levels to keep costs down, and we are staring down a “tsunami of shut-offs” where millions of Americans could lose access to the fossil-fuel generated electricity. For now, that power is necessary to run life-sustaining medical equipment, appliances, air conditioning, and the heating necessary to keep them and their water lines from freezing.

Well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy prices were already on an alarming trajectory, so much so that Biden was pressured to tap into our nation’s strategic petroleum reserve (only the fourth time that has occurred in our nation’s history). Even now, as gasoline prices have shaken off the worst of what the president called “Putin’s price hike,” costs are still over 30 percent more expensive than when Biden first came into office.

With gas, diesel, and other fossil fuels undergirding our national transportation and delivery infrastructure, high energy prices are now seeping into many other sectors of the economy. No economist seriously doubts that energy is one of the predominant factors driving the inflation that is walloping the country and eating away at American workers’ wages.

Some will say the solution is to create new subsidies for renewable energy sources like wind and solar so that they are more affordable. But this would double down on bad policy, ignoring how much we are already spending to try to bring down the cost of green energy. Research from the Texas Public Policy Foundation shows that we provide more than 100 times as many federal subsidies per unit of electricity generated by solar as we do coal, and nearly 50 times as much for wind as oil and natural gas. Throwing even more taxpayer money at wind (which makes up less than ten percent of our electric grid) and solar (less than three percent) is not going to do much to help the poorest households.

Instead of picking energy winners and losers, we should follow the proven blueprint for government laid out by one of our country’s greatest statesmen, Abraham Lincoln: “to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.” In other words, government’s role should be to get out of the way and lift policies it has put in place that artificially drive up prices: namely, the nest of taxes and regulations on energy that keep prices for all sources of energy high—from fossil fuels to nuclear and hydropower.

Every morning, the Book of Common Prayer instructs American Christians in the Anglican tradition to pray a version of Psalm 9.18: “Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.” We ought to keep these words at the forefront of our deliberations on energy policy, because the war on energy hurts the poorest first—and most.