US President Joe Biden on Wednesday chastised the oil industry over soaring fuel prices at the heart of 40-year-high inflation, warning of unspecified emergency measures.
In a letter to seven major oil corporations, Biden delivered his most direct salvo yet in a campaign to blame the industry for stoking price increases.
Average fuel prices are US$5 per gallon for drivers in the US, up from US$3 a year ago, and the spike is reverberating through the entire economy, helping to sink Biden’s approval ratings to below 40 percent.
Photo: AFP
“Refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote in the letter to executives from Shell PLC, Marathon Petroleum Corp, Valero Energy Corp, ExxonMobil Corp, Phillips 66, Chevron Corp and BP PLC.
Biden said that the economy is in “a time of war,” referring to the global fallout from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against energy exporter Russia.
“My administration is prepared to use all reasonable and appropriate federal government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term, and to ensure that every region of this country is appropriately supplied,” Biden said, without detailing what kind of actions he could take.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden sees it as US oil companies’ “patriotic duty” to increase capacity.
The president has regularly lambasted the oil industry for what he says is a failure to tap into already approved wells and increase output, but the letter, accompanied by a graph depicting rising producer profits, marked an escalation in the war of words.
In the letter, Biden asked for “explanation of any reduction in your refining capacity since 2020, and any concrete ideas that would address the immediate inventory, price and refining capacity issues in the coming months — including transportation measures to get refined product to market.”
“The crunch that families are facing deserves immediate action. Your companies need to work with my administration to bring forward concrete, near-term solutions that address the crisis,” he wrote.
Biden’s Democratic Party risks losing control of Congress in November elections, and polls show that fears over the economy dominate.
In a fiery speech on Tuesday, he blamed Republican obstruction in Congress and Russia’s war in Ukraine for price increases that he said are “sapping the strength of a lot of families.”
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
RSS