Biden’s Confusing, Contradictory Approach Toward Oil and Gas

August 11, 2021

From the very first day of his Administration when he cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, President Biden has prioritized policies that hurt America’s oil and gas industry. So, imagine the faces of our nation’s oil and gas workers when they pick up the newspaper and read the Biden Administration urging OPEC to increase its own fossil fuel production. According to an article by Reuters today: 

President Joe Biden’s top aides are pressuring OPEC and its oil-producing allies to boost production in an effort to combat climbing gasoline prices that they see as a threat to the global economic recovery.

Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan criticized the world’s major oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, for what he said were insufficient crude production in the aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“At a critical moment in the global recovery, this is simply not enough,” he said in a statement.

The unusual statement ratcheted up international pressure and comes as the administration tries to contain a range of rising prices and supply bottlenecks across the economy that have fueled inflation concerns

Last month, the Biden Administration was also urging OPEC to open its spigots, as PTF reported at the time. We also pointed to a Wall Street Journal editorial highlighting this incredible contradiction:

Mr. Biden knows surging prices for gas and other goods hurt middle-class Americans and could undermine his Presidency. This is one reason he refused a proposal to pay for the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure deal by increasing the gas tax.

But note the irony that Mr. Biden is now urging OPEC to open its taps even while his Administration is pursuing policies with the goal of shutting down U.S. oil and natural gas production. His Administration has sought to halt new leases on federal land, suspended leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and is expanding endangered-species protections to limit oil production on private land, among other policies designed to punish fossil fuels.

The Administration’s efforts toward OPEC underscores that they fully understand how important affordable energy is to economic growth. Yet, they continually prioritize the demands of radical environmentalists over the economic needs of working Americans.

Biden’s overreaching approach to the energy industry has slowed down domestic oil and gas production and caused the U.S. to now have to turn to foreign nations for affordable energy. We warned time and time again how losing our hard-earned energy independence would put the U.S. in a vulnerable position. Well, here we are looking weak on the national stage due to this administration’s ill-informed energy policies.