Oil company CEOs likely have a pretty serious case of whiplash. During House hearings last October, Democrats hoping to score political points told oil bosses to reduce production. During House hearings yesterday, Democrats hoping to score political points told oil bosses to increase production. With gas prices soaring, Democrats are tilting at political windmills.

“Are you embarrassed as an American company that your production is going up while the European counterparts are going down?” California Democrat Ro Khanna asked Chevron CEO Michael Wirth in October. Of Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, Khanna demanded, “Would you commit to matching your European counterparts to reducing the production of oil?”

Wednesday, it was just the opposite.

“We have the capacity right now” to increase production, huffed Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette. “The reason why your companies aren’t doing it, as you freely and honestly admitted, is because you’re looking at your shareholder profits.” Other Democrats joined in the fray, drilling executives over daring to earn profits.

Oil companies are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

Democrats are pushing hard to achieve their Green New Deal objectives — remaking the economy and the energy sector in particular to combat climate change. Or so they say. This involves a plan, in Joe Biden’s words, to “end fossil fuel.” Democrats’ replacement is “renewable” energy like wind and solar, all while pushing millions of electric vehicles that will overwhelm our electric grid and put us even more at the mercy of China, which controls a lot of the supply chain for batteries.

In fact, New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone boasted about this EV dream. Democrats, he said, have “worked hard” to “bring real energy security to the American people” and focus on “actually reducing costs for American consumers at the pump.” The proof? “We’ve invested in electric vehicles to give consumers a choice and make high gas prices a thing of the past.” Let them buy electric cars. After his EV declaration, Pallone insisted, “We’ve done our part or we’re doing our part to try to produce or have more oil available on the marketplace.”

Whiplash.

Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers offered a far more accurate assessment: “High gas prices are a feature of this administration’s policies, not a bug. If you’re wondering what life would look like under the Green New Deal, you’re getting a small taste of it now.”

Indeed, Democrats are suffering political blowback for skyrocketing gas prices. Today’s average price per gallon has ticked down to $4.15 after topping $4.30, while it was $2.39 the day Biden took office. The reason practically every gas pump in the nation has been decorated with an “I did that” Biden sticker is because he bears a lot of blame for high prices.

Literally on his first day in office, he killed the Keystone XL pipeline. He’s limited drilling permits, floated additional taxes on oil company profits, encouraged banks not to lend money for fossil fuels, and threatened to raise fees on unused oil wells. Energy companies take these factors into account when planning investments and when pricing their products. Democrats would rather pretend prices reflect nothing but greed.

So, Dems are stuck between a rock and a hard place. One quote from Washington Democrat Kim Schrier particularly illustrated their decidedly mixed messaging: “Long term, we need to wean ourselves off of this dependence on fossil fuels. But in the short term, we need you to step up” by increasing production. Forget a contradiction from a hearing six months ago. Schrier contradicted herself in six seconds.

Democrats have only become more radical in their ecofascist dogma in recent years. But the pain at the pump for average Americans is going to cause pain at the polls for Democrats come November. That’s why they’re talking out of both sides of their mouths now.