{"id":1568357,"date":"2022-07-24T07:32:55","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T11:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1568357"},"modified":"2022-07-24T07:35:25","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T11:35:25","slug":"senior-state-department-official-argues-in-favor-of-high-gas-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senior-state-department-official-argues-in-favor-of-high-gas-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior State Department Official Argues in Favor of High Gas Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenior-state-department-official-argues-in-favor-of-high-gas-prices%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1568357&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody\">\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody-body\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement-item\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"ArticlePage-articleBody-firstLetter\">A<\/span> U.S. <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/state-department\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">State Department<\/a> official has deleted his <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> account after facing considerable scrutiny for saying that he prefers high <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/gas-prices\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gas prices<\/a> because it leads to fewer carbon emissions. <\/p>\n<p>The controversy errupted Friday, when Alan Eyre, a longtime State Department staffer who currently serves as a senior foreign service officer, tweeted &#8220;I prefer high gas prices = less driving, less CO2.&#8221; The tweet was in response to a post from President <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Biden<\/a> claiming American families were paying less per month on average than they were during &#8220;peak prices.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Users on the social media platform began slamming Eyre, who described himself in his now-deleted Twitter bio as a government &#8220;bureaucrat,&#8221; over the hot take. California GOP Congressional candidate Ron Bassilian <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ron4California\/status\/1550608623847346176\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called Eyre<\/a> a \u201cghoul\u201d over the comment before noting that gas prices are \u201cinelastic\u201d to American drivers. <\/p>\n<p><b><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/buttigieg-spars-over-electric-vehicle-prices\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BUTTIGIEG SPARS WITH REPUBLICANS OVER ELECTRIC VEHICLE PRICES<\/a><\/b> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps,&#8221; Eyre replied to Bassilian, &#8220;But I don\u2019t think it is inelastic and I remember in the 1970s the oil embargo led to a massive increase in renewables.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>He included the hashtag #BeKind at the end of his tweet. <\/p>\n<p>Eyre&#8217;s effort to add context to his earlier post did not help his cause, as Twitter users continued to express their outrage, which comes after months of skyrocketing gas prices. While prices have <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/economy\/gas-prices-dropping-today-democrats-joe-biden-midterms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">continued to drop<\/a> across the country in recent weeks, with drivers seeing double-digit dips in some states, the tweet was condemned as out of touch. <\/p>\n<p>The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.41 on Friday, down 16 cents from last week. Drivers were paying $3.15 a gallon on average a year ago at this time, AAA said. <\/p>\n<p>Analysts have argued that \u201cglobal economic headwinds\u201d are pushing oil prices down and U.S. drivers \u201care fueling up less despite this being the height of the traditional summer driving season.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>However, the dip in prices may come too late to help Biden and <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democrats<\/a> ahead of the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/midterms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November midterms<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Republican pollster Ed Goeas has advised candidates about the time horizon for voters to conclude the economy is &#8220;getting better&#8221; despite gas prices dipping 50 cents per gallon since June on top of solid jobs and unemployment numbers. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/buttigieg-spars-over-electric-vehicle-prices\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">urged Congress<\/a> to subsidize electric vehicle purchases due to the gas price spikes. <\/p>\n<p><b><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/b> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles,\u201d Buttigieg told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it&#8217;s fair to say that even you have implied that [consumers] should buy an electric vehicle and absolve themselves\u201d of that cost, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) argued in response to Buttigieg. \u201cJust looking at Kelley Blue Book, the price of an EV is about $55,000.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, I want to be clear, nobody I know, certainly not me, thinks that all, or even most Americans, can easily afford electric vehicles,&#8221; Buttigieg replied. &#8220;That said, I&#8217;m struck by this $55,000 number that keeps going around. I knew this might come up, so I just pulled a few of the latest prices: A Chevy Bolt, so an American-made, 2022 EV, is $26,595. If you want a pickup truck, like a Chevy Silverado EV or Ford F-150 Lightning, the starting prices of those are $39,930 [and] $39,974, respectively.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A U.S. State Department official has deleted his Twitter account after facing considerable scrutiny for saying that he prefers high gas prices because<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1568360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1568360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}