Senior State Department Official Argues in Favor of High Gas Prices

A U.S. State Department official has deleted his Twitter account after facing considerable scrutiny for saying that he prefers high gas prices because it leads to fewer carbon emissions.

The controversy errupted Friday, when Alan Eyre, a longtime State Department staffer who currently serves as a senior foreign service officer, tweeted “I prefer high gas prices = less driving, less CO2.” The tweet was in response to a post from President Joe Biden claiming American families were paying less per month on average than they were during “peak prices.”

Users on the social media platform began slamming Eyre, who described himself in his now-deleted Twitter bio as a government “bureaucrat,” over the hot take. California GOP Congressional candidate Ron Bassilian called Eyre a “ghoul” over the comment before noting that gas prices are “inelastic” to American drivers.

BUTTIGIEG SPARS WITH REPUBLICANS OVER ELECTRIC VEHICLE PRICES

“Perhaps,” Eyre replied to Bassilian, “But I don’t think it is inelastic and I remember in the 1970s the oil embargo led to a massive increase in renewables.”

He included the hashtag #BeKind at the end of his tweet.

Eyre’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 continued to drop across the country in recent weeks, with drivers seeing double-digit dips in some states, the tweet was condemned as out of touch.

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.

Analysts have argued that “global economic headwinds” are pushing oil prices down and U.S. drivers “are fueling up less despite this being the height of the traditional summer driving season.”

However, the dip in prices may come too late to help Biden and Democrats ahead of the November midterms.

Republican pollster Ed Goeas has advised candidates about the time horizon for voters to conclude the economy is “getting better” despite gas prices dipping 50 cents per gallon since June on top of solid jobs and unemployment numbers.

Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged Congress to subsidize electric vehicle purchases due to the gas price spikes.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles,” Buttigieg told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Tuesday.

“I think it’s fair to say that even you have implied that [consumers] should buy an electric vehicle and absolve themselves” of that cost, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) argued in response to Buttigieg. “Just looking at Kelley Blue Book, the price of an EV is about $55,000.”

“First 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,” Buttigieg replied. “That said, I’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.”