UH-OH: Jim Cramer Says Biden’s ‘Worrisome’ Letter Rebuking Oil Companies ‘Harks Back’ to Jimmy Carter Era

CNBC’s Jim Cramer was among those criticizing President Joe Biden‘s accusatory letter to oil companies regarding gas prices on Wednesday, saying that this hearkens back to former President Jimmy Carter and the 1970s.

Biden’s letter, here in full from Mediaite, attacked the oil industry over what he called an “unprecedented disconnect between the price of oil and the price of gas.”

In addition to blaming the oil industry for record-high gas prices, Biden pointed the finger at “refinery profit margins.”

“Your companies need to work with my Administration to bring forward concrete, near-term solutions,” Biden demanded.

On CNBC, Cramer found the letter “worrisome.”

“What’s worrisome to me is the president, our president — our president’s reaction is to send a letter to the oil companies saying you’re making too much money,” said Cramer. “And that is — that harks back to an era of Jimmy Carter, and the Jimmy Carter of, you know, the windfall tax.”

“The president uniquely rebuffed the oil companies who wanted to produce more and instead is going to Saudi Arabia, which you call a pariah and a murder state,” Cramer said.

Under Carter, America experienced an extraordinary period of long gas lines, fuel rationing, and high prices for energy The eventual windfall profits tax was repealed just eight years later, having served to raise gas prices rather than decrease them.

Host Carl Quintanilla brought up the letter from the American Petroleum Institute (API) to the White House, in which API President and CEO Mike Sommers urged Biden to take steps like loosening federal land restrictions, accelerating permitting, and more. “It’s time to lead,” API said to Biden in their appeal.

“Right, but his base would just have a fit, his green base would have a fit if they did that,” said Cramer, adding that Biden has “made it harder” to get pipelines just in the last three months, extending the amount of time during which other groups can fight building or expanding them.

Co-host David Faber pointed out the real threat of climate change, and that the industry is moving toward electric.

“Why would anybody build another refinery in the United States? It’s a ten-year period to get paid back, and in ten years how many vehicles on the road will be electric?” he said.

“David, Exxon’s expanding its refining capacity, and the president’s picking on Exxon,” he said. “They’re building more and they’re also producing more, and the president’s saying, ‘Exxon you gotta produce more, what are you doing?'”

Last week, Cramer said that Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese was playing games with the numbers on the price of gasoline and the steps the administration is taking. And he suggested that Biden’s hostility to fossil fuels and unwillingness to “be seen” as working with them in an election year is a major factor in the cost of fuel.

Cramer suggested at the time that the Biden administration should offer to “break bread” with the domestic oil industry, rather than Saudi Arabia, and urge more production and an increase in refinery capacity.

“They just don’t want to do it, they think it’s a really bad thing for the election,” he said.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.