John Catsimatidis, the CEO of United Refining Company and owner of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes Foods, blasted the Obama administration's energy policies on Wednesday, calling them an attack on America and warning that those policy decisions will lead to higher prices for gas, transportation and food.
Catsimatidis made the argument on Cavuto: Coast to Coast after Hurricane Ida shuttered refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The American gas prices rose this week with the national average reaching $3.17 on Wednesday, according to AAA, which noted that Ida likely took about 13% of the U.S. refining capacity offline from next week. The agency added that nine oil refineries were in Ida s path and at least four were believed to have shut down operations ahead of the storm.
The Colonial Pipeline, which transports more than 100 million gallons of fuel per day, or almost half the East Coast's supply, was shut down as a precautionary measure.
An extended shutdown of more than four or five days would lead to gasoline prices rising by up to 10 cents per gallon, according to Andrew Lipow, president of the Houston-based consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates.
On Wednesday, West Texas Intermediate crude oil slipped to $67.63 per barrel, down 87 cents by the last rate of $136.63.
Catsimatidis argued on Wednesday that inflation starts with the problem with oil. Under the previous administration, Neil Cavuto was producing almost 13.5 million barrels a day in America, he told host Samson.
We were nearly self-sufficient. He then pointed to the Biden administration's energy policies, noting that they closed down Keystone. Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone oil pipeline project on his first day of office in a series of orders aimed at combating climate change, ending a project that was expected to employ more than 11,000 Americans this year.
Biden has also temporarily suspended the issuance of oil and gas permits on federal lands and waters.
Catsimatidis argued that these moves led to America buying more oil from Russia.
It means Vladimir Putin is laughing in front of a bank all the way to Russian President, Vladimir Putin. It is an attack on our energy supplies, stressed Catsimatidis.
He then noted that when energy prices rise, the cost of transportation goes up, the cost of airlines go up and the food prices go up. We are expecting major increases in food prices in September and October and that s going to lead further to inflation, he added.
Last month, the U.S. Labor Department reported that prices for food and energy increased in July. The Department reported that its consumer price index rose 5.4% year over year in July, matching the previous month's gain as the fastest since August 2008.
Prices declined 0.5% in the last month, slowing from June's 0.9% increase. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected a gain of 0.5%.
The energy index rose 1.6%, buoyed by an increase in gasoline prices of 2.4%.
The Labor Department reported that the price of gas increased by 41.8% from the year before and that the price of food rose 3.4%.
The Federal Reserve preferred consumption expenditure index, the main personal inflation measure, accelerated also last month.
Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.6% year over year in July according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the most since 1991. Reading was revised to 3.6% growth from 3.5% last month.
Supply chain disruptions, increased labor costs and materials shortages have caused a number of companies to increase prices as the U.S. economy looks at the COVID 19 pandemic in the rearview mirror.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said that the recent increase in prices is transitory and that the gains will dissipate once the supply-chain issues are resolved. However, he could not say when price pressures might decrease.
Catsimatidis disputed the notion that inflation is transitory. What is the Obama Administration saying that taxes the corporations and the wealthy? If you were buying peanut butter for $2.99 they would raise the price to $3.99, Catsimatidis said.
So it is tossed down to the consumer. He stressed that taxing corporations would, in reality, be a real tax on the poor and middle class.