Getting the editorial boards of the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal to agree on anything is a tall task, but the failing energy policies championed by President Biden and Governor Newsom have done the trick. 

Since taking office, both Biden and Newsom have moved to cut domestic oil production. As prices skyrocket amid the self-inflicted supply crunch – gas prices have spiked more than $1.30 nationally to $3.42 per gallon, and experts are expecting home heating bills to jump 50% over last winter – the policies are taking heat from all sides.

As a recent Wall Street Journal editorial notes in great detail, “Mr. Biden and his party have sent signals that are loud and clear, in accord with the larger cultural message that fossil fuels are the new tobacco and the world doesn’t need them.”

However, of course: “That isn’t true, as Mr. Biden is finding out the hard way.”

After all, given that fossil fuels still provide the vast majority of America’s energy and will continue to do so for decades to come, any efforts to limit oil production will just hurt consumers with higher prices.

For its part, the Washington Post editorial board focused on “the tension between the long-run goal of relying less on fossil fuels and the short-run reality that the world still does depend on them — overwhelmingly.”

In so doing, the Post agreed that that Biden and Newsom are failing to accept the basic reality that the economy still largely demands oil and gas, and policies that keep American oil in the ground just force consumers and businesses to buy more expensive foreign oil imports: 

“When the United States and other Western countries discourage oil production on their territory and by their private-sector companies … they create an opportunity for state-owned oil companies in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela to grab market share.”

This key fallacy of the Biden-Newsom energy philosophy called out by both the Journal and the Post – that limiting oil production will somehow magically mean less oil demand – not only stubbornly rejects basic economics, but it also ignores how energy policies have real consequences for real people.

Californians pay the nation’s highest gas prices by far at $4.63 per gallon, up $1.45 over the past year and climbing with no end in sight. These higher costs hurt working families and drive prices higher across the economy.

That’s a reality Newsom shouldn’t be ignoring.