Wall Street Journal 3.8.2022
The U.S. will ban imports of Russian oil, President Biden said, targeting the lifeblood of Moscow’s economy as the West ratchets up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
“Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports, and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday at the White House.
Lee Heidhues 3.8.2022
The only way Americans will be weened off their climate killing vehicles is when the cost to own and operate a private vehicle becomes prohibitive.
The rapidly rising cost of gas, the result of Sanctions in response to Thug Putin’s Criminal War of Aggression against an independent Ukraine, is a small price to pay. Americans are giving lip service to supporting Freedom and condemning Thug Putin’s Aggression.
Now Americans will really show their support for Ukraine. Willingly or otherwise.
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.8.2022
Cat Abad, 37, who lives in the San Francisco area, where prices have hit nearly $6 for the highest-grade gas, said she saw stickers on the pumps at one local station saying that Mr. Biden was responsible for the rise. She took the stickers off, she said, believing that he was not at fault.
After months of working from home, Caroline McNaney, 29, was excited about going back to work in an office, even if her new job in Trenton, N.J., meant commuting an hour each way.
But when she spent $68 filling the tank of her blue Nissan Maxima this week, she felt a surge of regret about switching jobs.
“Is this for real?” Ms. McNaney recalled thinking. “I took a job further from home to make more money, and now I feel like I didn’t do anything for myself because gas is so high.”
The recent rise in gas prices — which the war in Ukraine has pushed even higher — has contributed to her sense of disappointment with President Biden. “I feel like he wants us to go out and spend money into the economy, but at the same time everything is being inflated,” she said.
Americans everywhere are feeling the sting of rising gasoline, which reached a national average of $4.07 a gallon on Monday, up more than 10 percent from a week ago. The last time consumers dealt with such a period of sharp price increases was when the global economy came undone during the 2008 financial crisis. (At that time, the average price per gallon reached roughly $5.37 when adjusted for inflation.)
How Gas Prices Have Jumped
The average price of regular gasoline on Monday, compared with a week ago, in select states. (See below for a full list of current averages by state.)
Gas prices were already increasing before the invasion last month, as oil suppliers scrambled to keep up with rising demand from consumers and businesses recovering from Covid disruptions. But calls in recent days from U.S. lawmakers and others to ban Russian oil imports have spurred worries about another hit to global supplies. Prices at the pump, in turn, soared rapidly.
The sticker shock is creating a conundrum for the Biden administration, which is trying to isolate Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, without squeezing the United States economy in the process.
Lee's Perspective 