Trump: US 'Energy Independent No More' This Memorial Day

Former President Donald Trump Thursday insisted, while gas prices are creeping up to new highs for Memorial Day weekend, that the United States is “energy independent no more,” but while he was in the White House, prices remained low. 

“I’m sorry to say the gasoline prices that you will be confronted with are far higher than they were just a short number of months ago where we had gasoline under $2 a gallon,” Trump said on his website. “Remember as you’re watching the meter tick, and your dollars pile up, how great of a job Donald Trump did as President. Soon Russia and the Middle East will be making a fortune on oil, and you will be saying how good it was to have me as your President.”

“Wasn’t it great to be energy independent, but we are energy independent no more,” he added. “Shame, shame, shame. Other than that, have a great Memorial Day Weekend!”

President Joe Biden, shortly after taking office, stopped construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and in recent weeks the administration agreed to waive sanctions against the company behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Europe and for its chief executive.

AAA says gas prices will be around $3 a gallon this weekend, the highest they’ve been since the 2014 holiday weekend,  reports ABC News.

The average gas price across the United States for the week of May 17 was $3.11 a gallon, and the week before it was $3.05 a gallon, according to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), and Patrick De Haan, head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, said increased demand and the effects of shutdowns after the massive cyberattack and subsequent shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline are to blame. 

“I’d say what we’re seeing now is just the market stabilizing, in terms of seeing pumps being refueled, but also remaining high because we know demand is going to be pretty significant,” Jeanette McGee, director of AAA’s external communications, told ABC News. 

In addition, gas stations in some southern states, including South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia are still out of fuel after the Continental shutdown, according to GasBuddy.com. 

Despite a modest recovery in the weeks following the pipeline incident, southern states are still experiencing outages — with 29% of South Carolina gas stations, 27% of Georgia gas stations and 25% of North Carolina gas stations out of fuel, according to GasBuddy.com.

McGee and De Haan both said they expect gas prices will remain at around $3 a gallon for most of the summer.