CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is pointing the finger at the Biden administration as the partial cause for the state's high gas prices.
Last month, West Virginia Senate Democrats asked Morrisey to look into high gasoline prices. The AG responded in a letter dated January 12.
In the letter, Morrisey said federal policies were partially responsible for higher gas prices. He said by "effectively killing the Keystone XL pipeline extension and by placing a moratorium on drilling for oil," the Biden administration kept U.S. production of crude oil from expanding and strained the supply for refined products such as gasoline.
“We are currently experiencing a surge in demand for gasoline products while the supplies have been less than anticipated. Thus, prices go up,” Morrisey wrote. “As the economy continues its recovery, and supply chains return to normal patterns, short term swings in the available supply of gasoline for the demand will likely reach an equilibrium.
"If unlawful, anti-competitive activity is detected in the retail gasoline industry, my office will take appropriate action.”
Also, Morrisey said the Biden administration’s decision to release of 50 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserves did little to ease the burden on West Virginia consumers because the country consumes about 20 million barrels of oil a day.
Morrisey also said proposed new methane regulations on oil and gas producers "would inevitably cause prices to increase at the pump."
"These regulations should not be implemented if the president is committed to reducing gasoline prices," he said.
The Democratic state senators had questioned if price gouging was taking place. But Morrisey said that isn't the case.
"Since the Governor exempted most consumer goods from his declaration of a State of Emergency, price gouging laws do not apply and businesses remain generally free to price their products without government intervention," Morrisey said. "In the long term, prices for gasoline generally follow the prices for crude oil. There are periods of time when the prices diverge, but they are usually short lived."
Gas prices generally are influenced by the price of oil in the world market, wholesale or rack prices, taxes, reserve levels, distribution bottlenecks, weather events and domestic and international news events.
Morrisey said the Legislature could look at lowering the state's taxes on gasoline.
"Taxes on gasoline in West Virginia are significantly higher than in neighboring states such as Virginia and Kentucky," he said. "If the Legislature lowered the tax burden on gasoline in West Virginia, it would make retailers more competitive with their counterparts in bordering states."