Southern Wisconsin Times

A Reedsburg gas station owner has been fined $400 by British Petroleum (BP) for not removing stickers depicting President Joe Biden claiming responsibility for the surge in gas prices.

"Oil giant BP has fined a US petrol station owner $400 because a customer attached a sticker to her pump which blamed the country's President Joe Biden for the country's high gas prices," Sky News Australia tweeted.

Frustrated Americans have started an anti-Biden sticker trend on gas pumps across the country. Gas station operator Pam Coy told Sky News Australia that while her staff removes stickers when they see them, she agrees with their sentiment.

“We keep taking them off, not that I want to, and they keep putting them back on. We can’t have someone standing out there 24/7 but yeah it cost me $400 in our money from BP because I have those stickers on there. I don’t care. Truth hurts, doesn’t it?” said Coy.

Coy added that BP will reimburse her the $400 if she takes the stickers off the pumps and sends photos to BP with proof. However, she also said, "I don't know, I might just leave them on there for the point. I don't care. It's what people feel."

On April 25, President Biden tweeted "Let’s be clear about two of the reasons prices, including the price of gas, are so high right now: COVID and Vladimir Putin."

The St. Louis Fed reported that American gas prices have surged to 32.8% from the time that Biden became president up until Russia invaded Ukraine.

AAA reports that the usual price for a gallon of gas is $3.89 per gallon in Wisconsin, a 42% spike from the previous year.

The latest Gasoline Misery Index, which tracks how much more (or less) the average American consumer is paying for gasoline on an annualized basis, shows Wisconsinites will spend $661 more annually on gasoline now than they did at this time last year.