Did President Biden do the right thing? For this observer, his policies ranged from incompetence at best, to his worst toxic hatred of the country and the people whose interests he was elected for. to advance. Somewhere between those two extremes, we have Biden’s energy policy. In this case, the appropriate adjectives would be inconsistent, incoherent and destructive. Don’t even try to understand it. To sum it up in a word, it’s utter madness.
I’m old enough to remember the 1970s, and the two “oil shocks” that occurred during that decade. A brief summary of the history can be found in This 2012 section from Foreign Policy. By 1970/71, American oil production had peaked and began to decline. 1973 led to the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East, and OPEC halted oil shipments to the US, Western Europe, and Japan. By January 1974, the price of crude oil on the world market had “More than quadrupled” (are from about $3 to $12 per barrel). Further constraints on supply in the late 70s, most notably the massive drop in supply from Iran after the ouster of the Shah, was followed by prices continuing to triple again, this time to are from about $12 to about $36 per barrel. Government efforts to control prices have largely been unsuccessful in limiting prices at pumps, but have caused shortages and lines at gas stations that have angered consumers. Without enough domestic oil supply, the US has become the mainstay of major international exporters, mainly OPEC and Russia. As reported in that Foreign Policy section, President Carter responded by “Mak[ing] Energy independence was the central ambition of his presidency. ”
Energy independence was a bipartisan goal of US Presidents and Congress, until President Obama was born. Obama has the opposite strategy. He was passionate about the Kool-Aid climate, and thought that the right goals were to limit energy production from fossil fuels, which would drive prices up and thus limit consumption. Obama’s famous quote, said in 2008 during his first presidential campaign, to be “Under my plan for a limited trade system, electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket.” While that statement specifically addresses electricity prices, the same principle applies to all energy prices. And Obama has sought to put his strategy into practice, by bringing proposed “limits and trade” legislation to Congress, and by attempting to use his executive power to limit natural development. fossil material in water. However, the cap and trade legislation failed in Congress, and domestic “legislators” worked around Obama’s federal restrictions to significantly expand domestic oil and gas production. of the United States, mainly on private lands.
One may disagree with Obama’s energy policy – I certainly said so – but at least it’s not self-contradictory.
And Trump, of course, reversed Obama’s restrictive energy policies, encouraged development and cracked down, and, in one term, achieved energy independence that has been a bipartisan goal of the United States. American presidents in the three decades before Obama. Energy prices have dropped dramatically, the United States is no longer eyeing the bad actors among oil-exporting countries, and all of those countries — from OPEC, to Russia, to Venezuela — are short of the revenue to pay their bills. their bill.
Now, for Biden’s madness. As far as I can tell, here are the key elements of Biden’s energy policy:
- Do everything in your power to limit the domestic supply of fossil fuels. Executive orders issued in the early days of the administration canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and terminated the lease for oil and gas development on federal lands. Other orders take an “all government” approach to restricting fossil fuels, so financial regulators, for example, are now getting involved with twist banks and regulators other financing to ward off the fossil fuel industry. As recently as October 21, the Financial Stability Oversight Board – a conglomeration of federal financial regulators headed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – got into the game with a press release announced that it will now be “At the forefront of member bodies’ agendas” Go to the address “The threat of climate change” by restricting fossil fuel developers’ access to finance.
- When energy prices inevitably go up, beg Russia and OPEC to increase supply. Early AugustThe Biden administration has begun begging Russia and OPEC to increase supply to keep oil and gas prices from rising too high. But not forcing prices to “spill” but the whole idea, which is a mechanism to reduce consumption and “emissions”? And the begging has continued this month, as you might expect by leaders from European countries, who also find themselves short of energy and prices skyrocketing as they hold themselves back. development of fossil fuels. As New York Times reported on November 4, “President Biden and other world leaders have called on countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to increase production because of oil prices, which collapsed during the pandemic last year. , has now hit a seven-year high.”
- Blame soaring prices and supply shortages on anything but your well-intentioned policies. According to the New York Times, on November 2, Biden said that the rise in oil and gas prices “So far, it’s been the result of Russia or the OPEC countries refusing to pump more oil.” It is clear that in the weeks since, he or his executives have taken a political turn, and have decided that it would be more profitable to blame the price increases on the oil companies. bad. Above On November 17, Biden sent a letter to FTC Chairman Lina Khan request the commission to investigate “Taking evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies.”
Here’s my question: If soaring oil and gas prices are due to the anti-consumer behavior of greedy oil and gas companies, will those companies really be less greedy when Trump is President and Are oil prices falling?
With Obama, he at least understood that the whole idea of his policies to suppress fossil fuels was to force reductions in consumption through price increases. But with Biden, you’re never sure. Is he too stupid to understand that his policies are designed to have, and are likely to have, significant upside effects and push us back into dependence on OPEC and Russia?
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