Cobb Reporter

President Joe Biden's latest decision pertaining to high gas prices has been to invoke the Defense Production Act in relation to manufacturing electric vehicles.

This is the latest area of concern for the Functional Government Initiative (FGI), which has led to their latest government investigation, the FGI reported in a release.

The FGI is a nonpartisan organization that strives to promote transparency and integrity from government agencies and elected officials, the organization reported. The group has been vocal in the past about how the federal government has handled high gas prices.

"Exploring the expansion of domestic extraction of minerals is a good step because it may create jobs for the next generation of American workers, but it does not tackle the current fuel crisis" FGI spokesperson Peter McGinnis said in the release. "We are on month two of 'we will do everything we can to lower gas prices,' yet nothing of substance has been done to accomplish that — as you can see every time you fill up your tank. Either the Administration is hoping the problem will fix itself or that Americans will surrender to astronomically high gas prices. Neither scenario appears plausible. Along with inflation in general, energy prices are crushing the American dream. FGI will continue its investigation of which special interests are dictating the government’s handling of this energy crisis."

The act was invoked in order to help with potential supply chain problems for electric vehicle components, which the Biden administration hopes will lessen the country's dependency on gasoline, the FGI reported. The policy will provide funds to private projects for studies pertaining to the logistics of mining the minerals required for assembling electric vehicle batteries.

If the government's promotion of increasing the country's supply of essential minerals is successful, it could decrease America's dependence on China, but the FGI reported that it's unsure how this will tackle immediate issues such as gas prices and inflation.

"Opening up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and calls to hostile dictators have formed the crux of their approach while requests to reconsider opposition to pipeline infrastructure and oil and gas leases and financing have repeatedly been rejected," the FGI reported. "The question of which special interests are influencing the government’s anti-fossil fuel policy amid an energy crisis remains the focus of several of FGI’s ongoing investigations and requests for government records."

Georgia's average price for gas is $3.72 per gallon. At this time last year, it was $2.71, AAA reported.