Biden Administration Tries to Shift Blame of Astronomical Energy Prices onto Energy Companies ‘Anti-Competitive Practices.’ Ha.

October 14, 2021

This week the Biden administration has been speaking with U.S. oil and gas producers about helping to bring down rising fuel costs.

Energy costs and shortages are rising worldwide. According to the U.S. Energy Department, in the United States, the average retail cost of a gallon of gas is at a seven-year high, and winter fuel costs are expected to surge. The Department said on Wednesday that household heating costs are expected to rise dramatically this winter for all fuels, but particularly for heating oil and propane.

The White House talks with energy companies touched on several issues along with the astronomical energy prices.

Reuters reports a White House official said, “We are closely monitoring the cost of oil and the cost of gas Americans are paying at the pump. And we are using every tool at our disposal to address anti-competitive practices in U.S. and global energy markets to ensure reliable and stable energy markets.”

The irony of this administration looking to blame-shift this energy crisis that their poor policies have led to onto energy companies ‘anti-competitive practices’ in the U.S. is truly astonishing. David Blackmon discusses this paradox in Forbes today:

After all, Biden’s cancelling the cross-border permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline as one of his first acts in office was seen as a highly anti-competitive practice, by oil producers as well as Canada, which would like to compete in the world market by selling crude oil to the United State. What is more anti-competitive than the government denying pipeline companies the right to compete in the marketplace? What could be more anti-competitive than a president cancelling an $8 billion investment with the stroke of a pen? Now instead of buying oil from our northern neighbors, U.S. refiners source a similar grade from Iraq and Brazil.

Wasn’t Biden’s other Day 1 action of placing a moratorium on the federal oil and gas leasing program an anti-competitive practice? That moratorium, remember, was supposed to last 30 days, ended up lasting 8 months, and was only reactivated as the result of multiple adverse decisions for the administration in the federal courts. Eliminating the ability of oil companies to compete to lease federal lands is pretty uncompetitive.

The President’s Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, recently suggested the administration is considering re-instituting the old, ‘70s-era ban on exports of crude oil, a ban that Barack Obama repealed in 2015. The repeal of that ban has been one of the most pro-competition actions the federal government has taken related to the oil and gas markets in the U.S. and globally in modern times. It would be hard to imagine a more anti-competitive action than to re-implement that irrational ban.

This administration’s contradictions have no end. The Biden administration is the only one to blame for these seven-year high energy prices that American households are forced to bear the brunt of.