Over the last few months, gas prices have been rising.

A gallon of gas averaging $3.40 up from $2.12 last year.

Here in the state of Florida, we are seeing the highest gas prices of the year.

According to local media reports, a gas station along an isolated highway in California was

charging $7.59 a gallon for regular and almost $8.5 for premium.

Those higher prices are putting pressure on consumers and have become a major concern for President Joe Biden.

Many of his most senior advisors at the White House are concerned that high-gas-linked prices could be politically deadly for the President.

Voters do not like high-gas-linked prices. And all over the place, people are cranky because inflation is affecting their lives in a real way.

That's our colleague Tim Puko, who covers energy policy.

We've heard from a lot of people both inside the administration and partners that those people talk to, that they are scrambling inside the White House.

They have been for weeks, almost several months now, to figure out the gasoline price issue.

Everything is at stake for Joe Biden.

But the challenge is that to lower gas prices, Biden wants more crude oil on the market.

And that is at odds with his promise to slow climate change.

Biden has to manage an almost impossible clash of top priorities.

He's got impending doom from climate change and major promises that he's made to address the country's contribution to it.

While at the same time, the potential for a consumer and voter revolt.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Limbaugh. It's Wednesday, December 1st.

Coming up on the show, why the Biden administration is scrambling to lower gas prices.

When Biden came into office, he made addressing climate change a top priority. On his first day, Biden canceled plans for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Then he tried to stop oil drilling on federal land. He's also championed electric vehicles and asked Congress for billions of dollars to support his climate agenda.

At the most basic level, they have acknowledged that society has to cut its consumption of fossil fuels to really make a dent in the amount of greenhouse gases that it's producing.

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