The White House has been forced to correct yet another error by President Biden after he said Americans who use renewable energy to power their homes could save “about $500 a month on average.”
Biden made the claim during remarks announcing the planned release of 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months. The speech included a plug for the administration’s proposed green energy programs currently before Congress.
“If your home is powered by safer, cheaper, cleaner electricity, like solar or heat pumps, you can save about $500 a month on average,” the president said.
Hours after the speech, the White House sent out a transcript of the president’s remarks with the word “month” crossed out and the word “year” added in brackets.
The correct version of Biden’s pitch also appeared in a fact sheet sent out to reporters ahead of the speech.
Biden was also criticized on social media for announcing that if his plan is OK’d by lawmakers, “we can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles [so] that a typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump.”
The president did not mention that according to Kelly Blue Book, the average price of a new electric vehicle in February was $64,685 — nearly 2.5 times the average price of a new compact car ($26,196), almost twice the average cost of a new compact SUV ($33,732), and 52% more expensive than the average sports car ($42,555).
Fourteen months into the Biden administration, the White House has gotten into the habit of correcting misstatements and verbal slip-ups by the president.
Just last week, Biden told US troops in Poland that they will witness the bravery of Ukrainians fighting the Russian invasion of their country “when you’re there,” appearing to imply US soldiers would enter Ukraine after he repeatedly said they would stay out of the European conflict.
A White House official quickly clarified that Biden wasn’t changing his stance on deploying the military into Ukraine.
“The president has been clear we are not sending US troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,” a Biden spokesman told The Post.
The following day, Biden made a spontaneous call for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be removed from office, saying, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
Not long after, an unnamed White House aide said in a rushed statement to reporters: “The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
Biden has since defended his remarks, telling reporters Monday that he is “not walking anything back.”
Thursday’s gaffe comes as the administration remains under fire for soaring inflation and rising gas prices — for which it has repeatedly blamed Putin and oil companies while refusing to acknowledge the role of their big-spending policies.