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This is record inflation in the United States. Year on year, prices rose 8.5% according to figures released this week by the Labor Department. The White House blames the war in Ukraine, but at the pump, many Americans are exasperated. For its part, the government announced the sale of 58,000 hectares of land to exploit hydrocarbons.
From our correspondent in Miami, David Thomson
At the gas pump, when entering his credit card, Tom monitors the prices of the day. Inflation is at its highest for 40 years in the United States, and for this retired American army, the person responsible is all found: his name is Joe Biden. ” Two years ago, when Trump was in power, I was paying $1.50 / $1.75 a gallon. Today, it can exceed 4.50 per gallon! »
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This price increase also hits basic necessities and rents. Tom will also have to leave Miami, the city has become too expensive for him. ” 32% increase in one year! Our income is not growing as fast! Everything increases, the meat, the groceries. My mother is 81 years old, she is barely coping. Now people are starting to understand who Joe Biden really is “, he continues.
” When people pay at the pump, it makes them think »
In the midterm elections in November, the Republican Party hopes to take advantage of this exasperation. This same, Scott Presley, a pro-Trump influencer very followed on the internet, came to set up his stand directly in this Miami gas station. His/Her message: against inflation, vote Republican! ” When people pay at the pump, it makes them think about the policies of the Biden administration he says.
But apart from inflation, the indicators are green: record growth, unemployment at its lowest. And if 90% of Republicans disapprove of Joe Biden’s economic policy according to the polls, 70% of Democrats are satisfied with it.
The US government sells 58,000 hectares for the exploitation of gas and oil
The government is under pressure to lower the price of gasoline. When he came to power, Joe Biden proclaimed a moratorium on the granting of new federal concessions for the exploitation of hydrocarbons, gas and oil. But his government has just announced the resumption of the sale of these lands.
58,000 hectares, spread over nine states, will be auctioned next week. This is 80% less than what the oil industry intended to acquire, which it did not fail to denounce, just like the increase in royalties that these companies will have to pay, a first for a century. These royalties will increase from 12.5 to 18.75% of profits.
The sale of land will be accompanied by new conditions: companies will have to consult the Amerindian tribes, or even respect the ” best available scientific methods to analyze greenhouse gas emissions. The moratorium imposed by President Joe Biden on the sale of new concessions had already been seriously undermined last year, when the government organized the largest sale of offshore territories in the country’s history: nearly 700,000 hectares in the Gulf of Mexico. A sale then suspended by a federal judge.
The new announcement has been heavily criticized by climate activists. Onshore and offshore mining is already responsible for almost a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. As for the price at the pump, these sales should not lower it immediately. Digging the wells and increasing production can take years.
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