March 24, 2022 10:02 AM UTC

Americans Understand Gas Prices Better Than You Might Think

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve discussed gasoline prices quite a bit this month, either through our own fact checking or by speaking directly with actual experts. The short version of why gasoline is so expensive is this: Because oil and gas companies are making so much money already — and committed to stock buybacks and dividends for shareholders — they don’t want to expend any resources on increasing production.

It was interesting to see, then, that new polling data seems to indicate that a majority of Americans actually understand that rising gasoline prices have nothing to do with partisan politics. Take a look at these charts from Navigator Research showing that Americans see the real culprits as 1) Vladimir Putin and Russia, and 2) Oil and gas companies:

Republicans have been trying really hard to blame rising gasoline prices on Democrats — including the State GOP’s infamous “gas station press conference” last fall. Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) was blaming President Biden for the increase just two days ago.

While this sort of fear-mongering probably plays well with the GOP base, the majority of Americans seem to be more interested in reality.