So, the same President Biden that canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on day one, driving tens of thousands of jobs out of the oil industry in a single swipe of a pen, now wants the same industry to help his administration keep rising fuel costs under control. Aside from a patriotic duty to help the country, why would anyone involved in the oil industry come to the rescue of the flailing Biden administration?
Biden’s meeting with oil executives is more of a “do something” approach to an issue he helped cause with his anti-petroleum environmental policies pushing the pipe dream of ubiquitous green energy development.
As Politico reports, the meeting has an “awkward” appearance between an industry that Democrats have demonized for decades and, frankly, sought to destroy. Now though, facing rising costs of everything and watching an economic recovery be eaten by inflation and rising fuel costs, the Biden administration wants help anywhere it can get it:
The latest outreach to the oil industry is an awkward shift for the Biden administration, which has pledged to move the country away from fossil fuels and has drawn criticism from the industry and Republicans for pausing lease sales of federal land for oil and gas development.
The Biden administration has requested OPEC increase its exports, but has few other options for bringing prices down. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last week that the administration was considering releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move that is usually reserved for supply disruptions.
Part of the problem is a simple matter of misplaced priorities. Despite the fact that the world economy, and the U.S. economy, run overwhelmingly on oil and gas, the Biden administration has no senior officials with any knowledge of dealing with oil prices and the oil market:
Oil industry officials and experts said the White House team had experience in renewable energy markets, but relatively few people with detailed knowledge of oil markets — the problem of the moment.
The irony of this point is serene. It’s almost as if Biden has been caught entirely off guard by the fact that most Americans fill up their cars with gasoline several times a month. This is the first his administration has heard of this but I’m certain they’ll be calling in an outside expert soon who knows how to deal with oil and gas, not just windmills and unicorns. Really, it’s just stunning that they have no one in the administration with a detailed knowledge of oil markets despite how intertwined every facet of the economy is with the cost of gas and diesel.
Naturally, oil execs are skeptical of this administration and immediately pointed out the fact that Biden’s party has repeatedly promised to make moves that would necessarily drive up the cost of oil:
Some in the oil industry are using the rise in fuel prices to push back against the Democratic promises to raise costs for oil and gas drilling on public lands.
“To ensure we have a stable and affordable supply of energy here in the United States, the Biden Administration should support the domestic production of oil and natural gas, ensure the continued production on federal land, work with the industry on sensible and smart methane regulations, and stop calling for higher taxes on the American oil and gas industry,” Anne Bradbury, chief executive of trade association American Exploration and Production Council, said in a statement.
In other words, if Biden wants the oil industry to do something, then he better start offering them something in return for their efforts and stop trying to drive them to bankruptcy. It’s not as if this is an easy problem to solve overnight, but it doesn’t help to have a president who is anti-oil and hates companies that make a living on fossil fuels.
Biden is from the party wanting to eliminate air travel and gasoline cars in the name of the Green New Deal, moves that would put these companies, the very companies Biden wants help from, out of business if enacted.
Is anyone shocked that a meeting between the Biden administration and the oil industry was less than productive? We shouldn’t be.
The real reason for the meeting is about blame-shifting. It’s not Biden’s fault, the White House Press Secretary will inevitably argue, it’s the oil industry that refuses to help and lower their prices. The future news practically writes itself.
