Don’t look now, but gas prices are soaring again. And we have no one to blame but Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats.

“The nationwide average price of gasoline increased for the 14th consecutive day Tuesday, reaching $3.81 per gallon, according to a AAA database,” reports Fox Business. (It’s $3.89 today.) “Pump prices had declined for 99 straight days between June and mid-September after hitting an all-time high of $5.02 a gallon.”

Of course, earlier this year when gas prices peaked, Biden blamed everyone but himself: It was price gouging, it was greedy oil companies, it was the pandemic, it was Vladimir Putin’s war. Then, over the summer, when prices began to fall, Biden tried to take all the credit. But now that gas prices are repeating their earlier surge, it’s time to shift the blame again.

If only our nation weren’t so utterly bereft of energy resources. If only we had vast lakes of oil beneath our feet, just waiting to be tapped into.

Oh, wait.

“In response to a Tuesday question from Peter Doocy of Fox News,” reports The Wall Street Journal, “White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre helped to clarify the Biden administration’s position on gasoline prices: When they go down, it is the result of the president’s hard work. When they go up, it’s due to a complex process that includes a number of factors beyond his control.”

So that’s how it works.

It all makes sense now: It’s all smoke and mirrors. And Jean-Pierre expects us to fall for it, claiming that we’re seeing “real savings” at the pump when prices are actually rising. At times like this, it’s great for Democrats to have the mainstream media to back up their ridiculous claims.

But we all know why gas is more expensive: Biden’s assault on America’s energy production. Having become energy independent and a net energy exporter under President Donald Trump, the U.S. regressed radically when Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline on his first day in office, blocked other drilling and exploration, and began pushing “green” energy snake oil.

“Since Team Biden has seized nearly every opportunity to discourage U.S. production of fossil fuels,” adds The Wall Street Journal, “it’s hard to see where consumer savings can be found. Bashing profit-seeking businesses for seeking profits is just one more incentive the administration is offering to persuade people not to invest in the creation of new U.S. oil supplies. This follows enactment of a $370 billion plan to steer Americans toward other energy sources.”

Despite all this, any mention of ramping up U.S. oil production is reflexively dismissed by Biden and the Democrats. The president has repeatedly scolded oil companies for making profits, demanded that they reduce prices, and threatened to intervene in the export of their product overseas.

In the wake of Hurricane Ian, Biden’s stark warning to American oil companies and gas stations to not engage in price gouging was nothing more than political theater. Prices aren’t going up only because of Hurricane Ian. They’re going up as a result of a perfect storm of inept leadership in the White House.

Looking back, Biden’s hat-in-hand visit to Saudi Arabia this summer clearly didn’t work. OPEC+ (of which Russia is a member) rejected his plea for increasing oil production and instead announced this week a cut of two million barrels per day.

Almost immediately, gas prices began to rise. Clearly, it takes more than a fist bump to impress Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But, hey, “no one f***s with a Biden,” the president crassly boasted — except, evidently, “pariah” states like Saudi Arabia.

Biden criticized the Saudis’ decision as “short sighted,” but one study highlights the fact that Biden’s own anti-drilling policies have already cost the U.S. two to three million gallons of oil per day, more than the Saudi reduction.

Making matters worse, in April Biden began releasing one million barrels of oil each day for the next six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the largest release in history. It had minimal impact on global prices. Instead, it was purely for political purposes, but with the added detriment of significantly reducing our national security preparedness. That became even more obvious when, as prices rise again, Biden this week promised to continue releasing SPR oil until after the election.

Remember: This is the reserve that’s supposed to be in place for emergencies, not to save Democrats from a midterm shellacking. And it’s the same reserve from which the Biden administration sold millions of barrels of oil last summer to other countries in order to lower the same gas prices they were responsible for raising in the first place.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Democrats and their feckless leader will do anything to save themselves. Except they can’t seem to get out of their own way. By undermining America’s energy independence, pushing the lies and the destructive policies of green energy, and blaming the very oil companies that can solve our energy needs, it’s the American people who’ll end up paying even higher prices this fall and winter.

As Mark Alexander observed: “Remember when Joe Biden was pushing his ‘Made in America’ promise and declared emphatically, ‘The supply chain is going to start here and end here’? That works with domestic oil and gas supply too!”

The surge in oil prices adds to the Democrats’ midterm “inflation problem,” as does Biden’s pathetic pandering. Come November 8, an increasing number of Americans will likely remember who’s to blame.