Biden Pledges ‘Come to the Lord’ Showdown With Oil Companies

(Bloomberg)

Joe Biden said he plans to soon confront oil company executives over energy prices, as he sought to stave off sweeping Democratic losses in congressional elections next week.

“I’m working like hell to deal with the energy prices,” Biden said at Viasat Inc. headquarters in Carlsbad, California, on Friday. “I’m going to have a little — as they say — come to the Lord talk with the oil companies pretty soon.”

Biden didn’t elaborate, but on Monday suggested imposing a windfall tax on oil company profits for companies without sufficient reinvestment in production.

High inflation, particularly for food and energy, threatens to end Democratic control of Congress next week when voters cast ballots for all 435 House seats and about a third of the Senate. Biden has frequently complained that oil companies are in part to blame for elevated prices at gasoline pumps and escalated his criticism of the industry as the midterm elections approached.

Gasoline prices averaged $5.48 a gallon in California on Thursday, according to the AAA motorclub. The national average was $3.79. Prices have been rising again in recent weeks after a decline since June when the national average peaked at more than $5 a gallon.

Biden has also promised to reassess the US relationship with Saudi Arabia after the kingdom and its OPEC+ partners announced in October that they would cut global crude production by 2 million barrels a day. The Biden administration had sought unsuccessfully to persuade members of the cartel not to go forward with the cut, and it followed a trip Biden made to Saudi Arabia in July in order to improve relations and assure sufficient oil supplies.