A little over half of the respondents in a Rasmussen survey rated President Biden's handling of the U.S. economy as "poor," and they appear not to accept Biden's explanation of whose fault high gasoline prices are.
The U.S. President has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and oil companies for the fuel price increase, with White House official communication referring to it as Putin's Price Hike.
Apparently, this is not good enough for voters, based on the Rasmussen survey responses: Only 29% of voters think that oil companies are to blame for rising fuel costs, and only 11% blame Russian President Putin. Instead, 52% of those surveyed believe that President Biden's policies are the culprit.
The number of voters approving of Biden's handling of the economy has slipped from 32 percent in December to 27 percent this month.
Meanwhile, 57 percent said the President's handling of the economy has been poor, which is slightly up from 55 percent in December.
Although modest in its sample of 1,000, the Rasmussen survey is not the only one pointing toward dissatisfaction among voters of federal energy policies. An earlier poll from this month, conducted by Reuters and Ipsos, suggested that approval for President Biden had fallen to 39 percent, close to the lowest since he took office.
The President has been quite active in his attempts to rein in fuel prices, but so far, nothing has had a lasting effect. Among the measures taken so far was the planned release of a total of 180 million barrels of crude from the strategic petroleum reserve, appeals-and threats-to the oil industry to pump more, and appeals to the refining industry to refine more.
In a recent letter to the oil industry, Biden wrote that he was "prepared to use all reasonable and appropriate Federal Government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term."
The latest news from the price control camp is that the President is about to announce a gas tax holiday, which would lighten up the financial load on drivers but will reduce a revenue stream for infrastructure projects.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More