Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday told President Biden that Americans suffering from high gas prices are welcome to drive across the border into Mexico to save money on fuel.
López Obrador told Biden in the Oval Office that gas is much cheaper on his side of the border.
“We have decided that it was necessary for us to allow Americans who live close to the border … [to] go and get their gasoline on the Mexican side at lower prices,” he told Biden through a translator.
“And right now, a lot of drivers, a lot of Americans are going to Mexico to get their gasoline. We are committed to guaranteeing twice as much supply … And right now a gallon of regular costs $4.78 average on this [US] side of the border and on our territory, $3.12.”
As of Tuesday, the average cost of regular gas was $4.66 a gallon in the US, according to AAA, down from an all-time high of more than $5 less than one month ago.
California, which borders Mexico, remains one of the most expensive states for gas, at more than $6 per gallon, according to AAA. In Texas, the average is about $4.20.
López Obrador didn’t cite a source for the cost of gas in Mexico and the website globalpetrolprices.com cites a higher Mexican average of about $4.41 per gallon.
Mexico’s government has been spending big to subsidize gasoline prices to ease hikes at the pump, an effort backed by López Obrador. But the subsidies were temporarily halted in the border region due to shortages in April, Reuters reported.
That temporary ban went into effect after reports of US drivers heading across the border to fill up as prices soared. Tijuana gas stations were advertising the difference with signs like “Cheaper than in the USA,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Although López Obrador appeared to make the offer with sincerity, it threatens to provide fresh fodder for Biden’s domestic critics, who have slammed his administration’s energy policies.
Republicans routinely point out that Biden attempted to impose a moratorium last year on new oil drilling on public lands while spiking new oil pipeline projects, including the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. Biden and oil company executives recently traded jabs publicly over blame for record prices.
High gas prices are contributing to the worst inflation since 1981 and are politically lethal to Biden and fellow Democrats ahead of the November midterm elections for Congress.
The Mexican leader visited the executive mansion hours after first lady Jill Biden apologized through a spokesperson for saying Monday that Hispanics are as diverse as “breakfast tacos.” In the same speech Monday, she mispronounced “bodega,” inviting further ridicule.
López Obrador, a left-wing leader often compared to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), badly embarrassed Biden last month by leading a boycott of the Biden-hosted Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, citing the US decision to exclude the authoritarian governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Neither leader took reporter questions Tuesday or addressed the rift over the conference.
US gas prices were already on the rise during 2021 — from about $2.30 to $3.27 per gallon —before surging when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Biden last month asked Congress to temporarily waive the federal gas tax of 18.3 cents per gallon, but was rebuffed. In March, he ordered the release of a million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and allowed a higher proportion of ethanol in gas over the summer.
At one point in his Oval Office remarks Tuesday, Biden told López Obrador that they would privately discuss “reparation efforts,” seeming to refer to stalled talks for the US to pay up to $450,000 per person to illegal immigrant families separated by the Trump administration at the border. A White House official told The Post, however, that Biden meant to say that they would discuss “repatriations,” meaning deportations.
