Chris Christie is a smart guy with many of the right ideas about government spending, taxes, inflation, energy, and the environment.
But it's a real stretch to think that the timid interest rate increases of the Fed are responsible for this year's so-far moderating inflation indicators when it's falling energy prices since the winter which deserve the real credit. Christie himself admits that outrageous government spending hasn't been curbed at all.
His is a simple binary view which, while conventional and correct as far as it goes, doesn't get to the heart of the current matter.
Low energy prices have always been and remain key to a successful economy, and it was the spike in natural gas cost inputs because of the Russia-Ukraine war which accelerated inflation globally, not just in the US.
Fed chair Jerome Powell was correct in June of 2021 to believe that inflation would be transitory for "weak supply" reasons, but the Fed rate increases didn't actually commence until the start of the war in Ukraine, which compounded those reasons with the cutoff of European natural gas supplies.
But since the winter the natural gas price is down 73% from peak, coal is down 70%, and gasoline is down too, but a comparatively modest 24%.
Americans consumed in 2022 the energy equivalent of 26.9 billion kWh/day of natural gas, 13 billion kWh/day of gasoline, and 7.9 billion kWh/day of coal.
Natural gas is twice as important as gasoline in the overall American energy picture, primarily for heating, and as a substitute for coal in electricity generation.
Natural gas produced 4.6 billion kWh/day of electricity in 2022, the top source of electricity, vs. coal at 2.3 billion kWh/day and nuclear at 2.1 billion kWh/day.
Chris Christie is right though. We must "uncap" US oil and gas production and be energy independent.
Europe's natural gas storage, by the way, is presently 93% full as the war in Ukraine drags on. They are ready.
The US used 88.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2022. We presently have about 35 days in storage.
Crude oil consumption in 2022 was about 20.3 million barrels per day. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is down to about 17 days of supply, from about 35 in 2011.
Watch CNBC’s full interview with GOP Presidential Candidate Chris Christie
Christie lets Fed off the hook for inflation, blames Trump and Biden for overspending
