Advocates to Biden: Car Dependence — Not Gas Prices — Is America’s Real Crisis
President Biden’s announcement that the U.S. will stop importing Russian oil has sustainable transportation advocates urging leaders to take action before surging gas prices overwhelm American families — by giving them access to the active and shared transportation they needed long before the nation’s latest oil crisis.
In a series of remarks on Tuesday, Biden acknowledged that domestic gas prices will “definitely go up” as a result of the embargo, but defended the move as necessary to “deal another powerful blow to [President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine” as Russia continues its widely condemned attack on the Ukraine.
Experts expect the move will drive average U.S. gasoline prices above $5 a gallon for the first time in history, and residents of some cities in California, like Richmond, are already seeing prices as high as $6.99. If those prices proliferate across the country, they’ll shatter the previous national record of $5.20 (adjusted for inflation) set during the 2008 financial crisis.
Biden assured Americans that he would “do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike at home,” but the President didn’t comment on what he’d do to make life less painful for people outside automobiles — which would make it possible for more Americans to choose travel modes that don’t require a drop of gasoline at all.
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