AMLO calls on Americans to buy cheaper gas in Mexico

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday told President Biden that Americans struggling with rising gas prices are welcome to drive across the border into Mexico to save money on fuel.

Gas is much cheaper on his side of the border, Lopez Obrador told Biden in the Oval Office.

“We have decided that it is necessary for us to allow Americans who live near the border… [to] Go and get gasoline from the Mexican side at lower prices,” he told Biden through an interpreter.

And right now, a lot of drivers, a lot of Americans go to Mexico to get gasoline. We’re committed to ensuring twice the supply…and now an average gallon costs $4.78 [US] On the border side and on our lands $3.12.”

As of Tuesday, regular gas averaged $4.66 per gallon in the U.S., According to AAAdown from an all-time high of more than $5 less than a month ago.

California, which borders Mexico, remains one of the most expensive states for gas, at more than $6 a gallon, according to the AAA. In Texas, the average is around $4.20.

Lopez Obrador did not mention a source for the cost of gas in Mexico and the website globalpetrolprices.com He cites a higher Mexican average of about $4.41 per gallon.

Mexico’s government is spending large sums to subsidize gasoline prices to dampen increases at the pump, an effort López Obrador supports. But support was temporarily halted in the border region due to shortages in April, Reuters reported.

This temporary ban went into effect after reports that American drivers were heading across the border to fill the void as prices soared. Tijuana Gas stations were advertising the difference With tags like “cheaper than the US,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Although Lopez Obrador appeared to be making the offer honest, he threatens to provide new fodder for Biden’s domestic critics, who have criticized his administration’s energy policies.

Republicans routinely point out that Biden Try to impose a moratorium Last year on new oil drilling operations on public lands during the implementation of new projects for oil pipelines, including Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. Biden and the oil company Recently CEOs Punches traded publicly for blaming record prices.

The rise in gas prices contributes to Worst inflation since 1981 And it’s politically fatal to Biden and his fellow Democrats ahead of the November congressional elections.

The Mexican leader visited the Executive Palace hours after first lady Jill Biden’s visit I apologize through the spokesperson For saying on Monday that Hispanics are as varied as “breakfast tacos.” In the same speech on Monday, she said: misspelled the word “bodega”, calls for more ridicule.

Lopez Obrador, a left-wing leader often compared to Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), deeply embarrassed Biden last month by County driving Summit of the Americas hosted by Biden in Los Angeles, citing the US decision to exclude authoritarian governments in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Neither leader responded to reporters’ questions on Tuesday or addressed the controversy over the conference.

Gas prices in the United States gradually increase During 2021 — from about $2.30 to $3.27 a gallon — before rising when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Biden asked Congress last month temporarily abdicate The federal gas tax of 18.3 cents per gallon, but was denied. In March, ordered Release one million barrels per day From the strategic petroleum reserve and allow a Higher percentage of ethanol In gas during the summer.

At one point in Tuesday’s Oval Office notes, Biden told Lopez Obrador that they would privately discuss “compensation efforts,” apparently referring to stalled talks for the US to push Up to $450,000 per person For families of undocumented immigrants separated by the Trump administration at the border. A White House official told the newspaper, however, that Biden meant to say that they would discuss “repatriations,” meaning deportations.