In his effort to make the nation relive the 1970s, President Joe Biden issued an appeal to OPEC (remember OPEC?) to pump more oil in order to fight rising global inflation.

As Quin Hillyer writes, Biden should be “ashamed” for groveling before the oil cartel. If Mr. Biden really cared about reducing energy prices, Hiller says, he should change his own administration’s policies that have hurt domestic energy production:

The main reason fuel prices are too high is because Biden’s policies have spurred inflation in the broader economy while specifically trimming domestic fuel production. Gasoline prices respond not just to current supply and demand but to expected future supplies as bulk purchasers bid for available crude. Biden has shut down the Keystone Pipeline, halted federal oil and gas lease sales, and suspended oil leasing in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, all despite existing laws approving those projects.

In general, his administration has also ramped up regulatory controls while speaking with great hostility about fossil fuels. All of this, every bit of it, has served to make bulk purchasers fear future shortages, thus bidding up prices in ways that hurt consumers at the pump.

Meanwhile, the spending sprees of Biden and the Democratic Congress, in concert with extremely loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, has spurred a massive inflationary spike that for the past two months has pushed up overall consumer prices at an annualized rate above 6%. Is it any wonder that gasoline prices have risen from a national average of $2.20 on Election Day to $3.23 today?

It shouldn’t be a wonder to anyone who has been paying attention. Then again, perhaps the Biden team was so laser-focused on an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan….oops. Historic blunders and an inability to understand supply and demand seem very on brand for Biden & Co.