WASHINGTON (WV News) — Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., keeps hearing from constituents who are fed up with the rising cost of gas.
During her time back at home, during trips throughout her district and in messages left at her offices, she is hearing the same refrain over and over again, Capito said Thursday during a virtual press conference.
“We’re not seeing any moves from this administration that are effectively slowing this or coping with it,” she said. “We’ve been getting a lot of calls — I got a lot of comments when I was home last week — about the high price of gasoline.”
The Biden administration needs to enact policies that encourage increased domestic oil production, Capito said.
“More drilling on our own and not being reliant on and purchasing from other countries,” she said. “I think things that the president has done, like releasing from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, has had no effect.”
West Virginia’s energy industry is able to contribute to the supply of domestically produced energy products but is hindered by a lack of energy infrastructure, Capito said.
“One of the major pipelines that is under construction in our state is being stymied by the Biden administration in terms of Fish and Wildlife (permits) and just whatever the excuse of the day is,” she said. “So I think we need to responsibly build infrastructure that will create an environment where we can use our own resources and reserves to our own advantage.”
The constituents she has heard from aren’t advocating for a specific policy position — such as a state gas tax holiday, Capito said.
“I think there’s just a lot of frustration,” she said.
“I just think that people have lost faith in the fact that Washington doesn’t see the everyday problems of putting another $50 or $100 in your gas tank every couple days or once a week. That is so frustrating to people.”
She does not support a suspension of the state’s 35.7-cent sales tax on gas, Capito said.
“I’ve always not been in favor of that,” she said. “That’s a short-term fix for a very long-term problem. And remember, the gas tax does go to rehabilitating and remodernizing our highways. So that’s important.”
Capito later held up a chart showing how much the price of gas has increased since Biden took office.
“During the space of time that the president has been in, our gas prices have gone up 100%,” she said. “So the solutions, I think, are in more supply, less regulation and more investment. We have an administration that is chilling anything that has to do with fossil fuels.”