Biden admin considered sending out pre-paid gas cards to ease pain at the pump

Last week, the Biden administration considered sending pre-paid gas cards to Americans to help ease pain at the pump, Axios reported Saturday.

Per Axios, a House Democratic counsel talked the White House out of the idea by arguing that gas cards would be expensive, poorly targeted, ineffective, and difficult for the understaffed IRS to handle during tax season.

White House spokesperson Vedant Patel said Saturday that gas cards are "not an administratively feasible solution" and are "not seriously under consideration."

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According to the American Automobile Association, the average price of a gallon of gas in the United States stood at more than $4.25 a gallon on Sunday.

The White House has considered stimulus checks, federal rebates, increased ethanol usage, suspension of the federal gas tax, and measures that would put pressure on oil companies as other potential means of helping Americans cope with high gas prices, according to Axios.

The Biden administration has also approached other oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, to help make up the shortfall stemming from a ban on importing Russian oil. Republicans have called for increased domestic oil production, while Bloomberg suggested taking the bus.

Earlier this month, Joel Mathis wrote at The Week that an effective (albeit unpopular) way of reducing how much Americans spend on gas would be to "bring back the 55-mph speed limit." The last national speed limit law, which lasted from 1974 until 1995, saved an estimated 167,000 barrels of oil per day, Mathis notes.