BUFFALO, N.Y. — According to AAA, the price of a gallon of gasoline in Western New York rose 46 cents in the last week, to an average of $4.21 per gallon.
That mirrors a trend across the country that now has the average price of gas topping well over $4 a gallon nationwide.
In Buffalo, on Monday we observed prices ranging from $3.89/gal. at the tax-free Seneca One Stop downtown, to $3.49 at a station in Williamsville.
Congressman Chris Jacobs, a Republican representing NY's 27th District, put the blame for what's going on squarely on President Biden and his energy policies, which Jacobs says have curtailed domestic production and taken the country away from energy independence.
Jacobs noted that even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent prices skyrocketing further, the price of gas had already gone up 50% during Mr. Biden's first year in office.
"And the one thing I was hoping to hear at the State of the Union was a course correction, but that didn't happen," Jacobs said. "I believe in green energy I think of wind and solar as a major profile in the future but we continue to need oil and gas and I believe natural gas is a bridge for the next decade or so," said Jacobs.
Jacobs says one step would be for the president to reverse course on his executive order, issued almost immediately upon taking office, which scuttled expansion of the Keystone Pipeline.
While that might not bring immediate relief, Jacobs said it would be a sign to oil producers and to other countries that the U.S. would be serious about increasing its domestic oil production.
"We need the federal government to take their hand off the throat of domestic production," Jacobs said.
RELATED STORY: