Biden blames soaring gas prices on Big Oil as he keeps up his war on fossil fuels

President Biden is the kind of man who deliberately would steer his car into a ditch, crawl from the wreckage, and then probe the ditch for criminal conduct.

Such nonsense mirrors Biden’s recent instructions to the Federal Trade Commission to indulge his fanciful conspiracy theory: the U.S. petroleum industry's plots and plans have fueled vertiginous rises in energy prices. Citing "mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil-and-gas companies," Biden told the FTC to "bring all of the Commission’s tools to bear if you uncover any wrongdoing."

At a minimum, such collusion would violate the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. Any general counsel worth his weight in depositions would sit on a live grenade before exposing his company to such legal peril.

Is Biden cynical enough to blame Big Oil for a national fiasco that he concocted? Or is he so touchingly self-unaware that he misses the connection between higher pump prices and his own War on Oil?

Biden told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in June 2007 his plan to cut gasoline costs: "As president of the United States, use the Justice Department to go in an investigate this whole issue of price-gouging."

So, Biden’s paranoia that Big Oil fixes prices has historical roots. It also is baseless. When Biden made similar noises in September, the Associated Press put him in his place. "THE FACTS: There actually is little evidence something nefarious is behind the higher gasoline prices, as Biden suggests."