In 2022, President Joe Biden declared war on oil and gas in America. Inside a Democratic primary debate, Biden declared, “No more subsidies for that fossil fuel industry. No more drilling including offshore. No ability for that oil industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.” High gas costs are a part of his plan.
The other day, Biden asserted that there was nothing his administration had done to boost prices or restrict drilling. Actually, there has been plenty of regulatory measures taken and offshore leases curtailed. More importantly, Biden declared war on fossil fuels.
Biden Declared War on Gas and oil in America
If you had been an investor, can you invest in a company the president of the United States declared he would end? The Biden administration’s entire posture has been against the gas and oil industry, which has fostered uncertainty in the market and disincentivized further investment. They've coupled this with regulatory gusto. They have additionally refused to fight activist Obama-appointed judges using climate change being an excuse to seal down offshore oil drilling.
Biden’s Sleight of Hand
In a strange little bit of optics, as the president was suspending Russian oil imports last week, he requested $2.6 billion for “gender equality” globally. He’s causing American energy price increases and wasting billions on nonsense. Now, he wants to blame the Russian oil imports for top gas prices, which were high prior to the ban. In doing so, Biden noted American oil producers produced more oil in his newbie than in President Donald Trump’s newbie.
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That is really a sleight of hand that highlights precisely how disingenuous Biden has been. Trump’s newbie have been preceded through the oil-hostile Obama administration. Trump got oil flowing again onshore and offshore. Trump’s second year outpaced Biden’s first year. Actually, years two through four of Trump’s tenure each saw more oil produced than Biden’s first year. Quite simply, the fact is that oil production fell once Biden got in office.
A Record High – and a Plunge
But there's something else. Oil hit $147.90 on July 14, 2008. That was and remains the record high. But oil plunged the following day. By the end of that week, oil prices were down 12%. By November, oil was to $30 a barrel.
What caused the plunge on July 15, 2008? President George W. Bush announced he was authorizing offshore oil exploration. That’s it. That’s the only thing that happened. News outlets said it would amount to nothing. The Obama campaign team dismissed it as a stunt. It directly caused the price of oil to start declining.
Why? Because oil is bought inside a futures market, not a present market. The marketplace responded to the information more American oil would be coming online by sending prices down.
US’ Large Oil Reserves
The Usa now has larger oil reserves than either Russia or Saudi Arabia. Based on a Los Angeles Times report, “The U.S. is sitting on 264 billion barrels, 8 billion barrels more than Russia and 52 billion more than Saudi Arabia, the dominant member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to the report by Rystad Energy, a respected oil and gas consulting firm based in Oslo. 3 years ago, the U.S. was behind Russia, Saudi Arabia and Canada in Rystad’s estimates of recoverable oil – barrels which are technologically and economically feasible to extract.”
If Biden were to invest in tapping our oil reserves and expanding domestic wind turbine, oil markets would respond rapidly, just like they did in 2008.
Let Them Have Electric Vehicles
Instead, even today, his administration dogmatically demands Americans switch to electric vehicles and obtain off non-renewable fuels. His administration continually signals that they'll put the fossil fuel industry bankrupt. They thereby disincentivize investments in gas and oil, driving up costs on the American people.
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Decline is a choice, which is one Biden’s administration is making on the backs of the American middle class. Their Marie Antoinette moment of “allow them to have electric vehicles” will provoke a backlash. They are able to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin all they want. Banning imports of Russian oil was the right thing to do – however it should responsibly be done by expanding American energy production instead of counting on Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.