Cole wrong to blame Biden for oil prices

I may not always agree with Insight columnist Althea Cole's opinions, but they're almost always well-reasoned. But in her July 31 column about the Biden administration's oil policies, generalization led to bad conclusions.

If gas prices were the only items on President Joe Biden's plate, she's right. However, she missed the gorilla and the elephant in the room.

The gorilla: A global COVID Pandemic, with shutdowns, lockdowns and widespread COVID misinformation throwing the industry into chaos. First we didn't need much oil, but now we demand far more as the disease loosens its grip. Basic economics gave us dirt-cheap oil two years ago, and now we pay far more because supply can't keep up. This isn't just limited to America, it's happening worldwide.

The elephant: Climate change. Just in the past weeks, water supplies in the Southwest are at critical record lows, there are record high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and the UK, and devastating wildfires in France. We've been told over and over that humankind's fossil fuel addiction is the culprit.

World leaders pledged to cut fossil fuel use. Biden is among them, as well he should be. It's easy to say, "drill baby, drill," but it could lead to, "bake, baby, bake." So he walks an oil policy tightrope.

Can we escape by turning the clock back 50 years? No. We now have to pay the piper for past misdeeds and excesses. We have to face today's reality. The Biden administration's doing just that.

Dave LaRonde

Cedar Rapids