Biden chastises oil industry over high fuel prices WASHINGTON : US President Joe Biden yesterday chastised the oil industry over soaring fuel prices at the heart of 40-year-high inflation, warning of unspecified emergency measures. In a letter to seven major oil corporations, Biden delivered his most direct salvo yet in a campaign to blame the industry for stoking price increases. Average fuel prices are now US$5 a gallon (RM22.09) for drivers in the United States, up from US$3 a year ago, and the spike is reverberating through the entire economy, helping to sink Biden''s approval ratings to below 40%. “Refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote in the letter to executives from Shell, Marathon Petroleum Corp, Valero Energy Corp, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Chevron and BP. Biden said the economy is in “a time of war,“ referring to the global fallout from President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against energy exporter Russia. “My administration is prepared to use all reasonable and appropriate federal government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term, and to ensure that every region of this country is appropriately supplied,” Biden said, without detailing what kind of actions he could take.