Gas prices jump in Keystone Pipeline cancellation fallout

Oil demand is at record highs in the U.S., but domestic oil producers can't or won't catch up because they have been canceled by the Biden administration, which is feeling the sting of its own anti-energy policies.

Prices at the pump hit a seven-year high of $3.41 per gallon as oil topped the $92- per-barrel level. 

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President Biden, who canceled the Keystone Pipeline on his first day in the White House, continues to chip away at America's energy industry. 

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Drilling moratoriums, threats for fossil fuel investors and desperate appeals to OPEC for help have contributed to rising energy prices, a major component of the inflation spike. 

The Biden administration has tried to backtrack on that and now is calling on the U.S. shale industry to drill the leases that they have and to add rigs, but even though the rig counts are going up, the production that's coming online is barely moving the needle. 

The U.S. shale industry is in need of constant investment to keep oil production going up at the same time companies have to be more fiscally responsible than they were in the past because the Biden administration's clampdown is making it almost impossible to take economic risks.

Adding insult to injury, on Thursday lawmakers called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to limit natural gas exports. 

"We can’t let energy companies squeeze American consumers with unaffordable energy bills at home while reaping record profits through LNG exports abroad," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement. "The Department of Energy needs to reevaluate its LNG export policies and figure out how to keep prices low for American consumers. Until the Department has a plan, it should consider halting permit approvals of LNG export facilities."

The "ask" is a further slap in the face to American energy companies that have already been neutered by the Biden administration. 

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Phil Flynn is senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group and a Fox Business Network contributor. He is one of the world's leading market analysts, providing individual investors, professional traders, and institutions with up-to-the-minute investment and risk management insight into global petroleum, gasoline, and energy markets. His precise and timely forecasts have come to be in great demand by industry and media worldwide and his impressive career goes back almost three decades, gaining attention with his market calls and energetic personality as writer of The Energy Report. You can contact Phil by phone at (888) 264-5665 or by email at pflynn@pricegroup.com.