Fox Reporter Asks Jean-Pierre Why Biden ‘Came After Oil And Gas Companies’ With Warning About Gouging Amid Hurricane Ian

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to explain why President Joe Biden repeatedly warned oil and gas companies not to use Hurricane Ian as an “excuse” to jack up prices.

As Ian barreled towards and through the southeast this week, Biden warned oil and gas companies several times that what he called a “small, temporary storm impact on oil production” is “no excuse for price increases at the pump.”

Biden added that “If the gas companies try to use this storm to raise prices at the pump, I will ask officials to look into whether price gouging is going on.”

At Friday’s press briefing, Heinrich asked Jean-Pierre to square those warnings with the fact that NSC spokesman John Kirby says there’s been no evidence of gouging thus far, and wondered if Biden’s warnings could “fray” relations with those companies:

MS. HEINRICH: Thanks, Karine. A couple times this week, the President came after oil and gas companies. He threatened again to investigate instances of price gouging. But John Kirby said yesterday that there — he hadn’t seen any evidence of that happening. And I remember the President first put out this — this call for the FTC to investigate possible price gouging in November of last year.

So my question to you is: Why does he keep throwing that out there? And does it have anything to do with the possibility that OPEC will announce a production cut next week, and we might start to see prices come up? Is he trying to deflect away from —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, as you know, we’re not going to speak to OPEC, OPEC+. We are clearly not — not a partner or part of OPEC+. So we — they are an independent entity, and we allow them to make their — make their news and their announcements on their own.

What we — what we’re saying is: We’re just making sure that while we’re — while people are dealing — while we are all dealing with a hurricane, that gas and oil companies don’t take advantage of it. It’s just — it’s just a little bit of a, “Hey, we want to make sure in this time, when people are losing their homes, when people are dealing with an incredibly difficult time, that we shouldn’t take advantage of it.” That’s it. It is just coming from the President. And we feel that coming from the President is a powerful voice.

And so, look, we don’t — we know that disruptions from hurricanes can pose challenge to markets, but the latest projections show that major refineries should not be impacted by Hurricane Ian. And so — so we’re just making it very clear to the oil companies. The President is making it very clear to the oil companies.

So there’s nothing more to it than just — being just vigilant about that.

MS. HEINRICH: Does it at all run the risk of further fraying the relationship between the administration and these — there’s been, you know, obviously, some space between, you know, their position — industry heads’ position and the White House in terms of attitudes toward fossil fuels and, you know, sort of casting of blame from side to side. They — the companies will say, “Well, the Biden administration is hostile, and that’s why, you know, we can’t ramp up production.” So does this kind of rhetoric —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, I mean, I —

MS. HEINRICH: — make it worse?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — I don’t think so.

As you know, the oil companies are currently meeting with — with officials — White House officials and the Department of Energy.

And so, look, I think the President thinks that he is standing up for the American people and making sure that oil companies are passing on the savings that they’re getting to consumers. And we have said that time and time again. And this is something that the President thinks it’s important to use his platform to do so.

Watch above via C-Span.