After tweeting that he preferred high gas prices, a State Department official is being criticized.
“I prefer high gasoline prices = less driving and less CO2,” Alan Eyre, Senior State Department Foreign Service Officer, tweeted Friday to respond to President Biden’s tweet that American families pay less per month than during “peak prices”.
Eyre’s Twitter bio describes him as a “gov’t bureaucrat”, with the phrase “kindness and always kindness”.
Eyre’s tweet was widely criticised on social media, including by Ron Bassilian (former Republican California state senator candidate), who called Eyre “ghoulish” and said that gas demand “inelastic.”
Eyre replied with the hashtag #BeKind.
“Be kind?” Basslian said. “Perhaps you can be kind to the millions of people who are left behind in this situation that you praise. A famine is a great way to begin a diet that is not kind.
Fox News Digital contacted the State Department for clarification but they did not respond immediately.
Eyre’s Twitter account seems to have been deleted or deactivated after the publication of this article.
Eyre’s comments come shortly after Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary, was criticised for suggesting that higher pump prices were actually beneficial to transitioning into electric vehicles.
In an interview with a radio station earlier this month Buttigieg stated that the Biden administration wanted to lower the price of electric vehicles. However, it was not clear if the Biden administration could afford to buy one.
“The more we all feel the pain of high gas prices, the greater the benefit for those who can get electric vehicles,” the ex-presidential candidate said while testifying before Congress.
On Thursday, the national average gas price was $4.40. Although the average national gas price has fallen by 20 cents since last week, it was still more than a dollar above last year’s prices and two dollars higher than when Biden took office.
