President Joe Biden is outwardly sick of watching oil corporations rake in report income whereas customers pay massive bucks on the pump. He threatened new windfall profit taxes towards fossil gas giants, and cautioned firms to stop cashing within the battle in Ukraine, in a Monday speech.

“It’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities to this country, and give the American people a break,” Biden mentioned in his impassioned remarks.

Gas costs initially spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. And although they’ve since fallen from their June peak of greater than $5 per gallon, the U.S. common remains well above what it was this time final 12 months, in line with the Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, fossil gas giants like Exxon and Chevron have been reporting traditionally excessive income.

Last week, ExxonMobil reported a quarterly profit of $19.7 billion—its largest ever, exceeding the earlier report set simply three months prior by $1.8 billion. And Chevron posted its second-highest ever quarterly revenue at $11.2 billion, shut behind its report of $11.6 billion earned between April and June 2022. The nationwide common value for a gallon of standard gasoline is $0.35 greater than in November 2021.

“Oil companies’ record profits today are not because they’re doing something new or innovative. Their profits are a windfall of war — the windfall from the brutal conflict that’s ravaging Ukraine and hurting tens of millions of people around the globe,” the President added.

In lieu of reducing costs on the pump, or say, truly following by on their multitude of guarantees to scale back emissions, a number of oil corporations have re-routed their report income into stock buybacks and dividend increases that reward buyers. Five oil executives cashed out almost $100 million in inventory shares within the weeks instantly following the beginning of the Ukraine battle.

“Here’s why it matters: If these companies were making average profits they’ve been making by refining oil over the last 20 years instead of the outrageous profits they’re making today and if they passed the rest on to the consumers, the price of gas would come down around an additional 50 cents,” mentioned Biden.

And clearly it additionally issues as a result of within the means of filling their coffers to bursting, fossil gas corporations are sentencing the entire planet to catastrophic local weather change. If the oil giants are so flush with funds, then why not transfer a few of that cash in the direction of the completely obligatory (and quickly accelerating) transition to renewable power?

Unfortunately, that wasn’t fairly the takeaway message that Biden centered. Instead, he referred to as on the likes of Exxon, Chevron, and Shell to make use of their extra income to “increase production and refining capacity.” Yikes. And he began off so sturdy. To make clear, the very last thing we want from a local weather perspective is for these corporations to place much more money and time into drilling and manufacturing oil. Yet even so, they already are. American oil manufacturing is up 4% from final 12 months, in line with The New York Times. Lack of provide and fossil gas infrastructure is much less the problem than outright greed.

But, even amid the blended messaging, the President no less than referred to as for a level of company accountability. If these fossil gas producers don’t alter to make sure that shopper costs replicate their earnings actuality, Biden threatened “they’re going to pay a higher tax on their excess profits and face other restrictions. My team will work with Congress to look at these options that are available to us and others.” Though Congress isn’t currently in session and any laws regulating oil corporations would seemingly wrestle to go by Senator Joe Manchin’s iron grip on the Senate.

Presidential approval rankings seem to track with gasoline costs. Over the previous 12 months, folks have been happier with Biden when gas value falls and vice versa. So it’s not stunning that he’s honing in on gasoline and heaping blame on fossil gas corporations because the midterm elections get underway. And he’s no less than half proper—oil corporations are clearly benefiting from the battle in Ukraine and world instability. Yet the President can’t have it each methods. If Biden needs to be taken critically on local weather, he can’t claim to acknowledge the rising hazard in a single breath, after which demand that oil corporations ramp up manufacturing within the subsequent.