President Biden wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post to stress that he isn’t going to beg for oil. In fact, the op-ed hardly mentions energy at all. The Biden White House, however, has begged OPEC+ for more oil for the last year, the high price of gasoline is the number one issue for likely voters, and voters are blaming Biden for high gasoline prices. Of course, energy is an important part, or even the most important part, of Biden’s trip to the Middle East.
Reading Biden’s op-ed left us wondering—what does Biden have against U.S. oil production? Biden writes, “A more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways. Its waterways are essential to global trade and the supply chains we rely on. Its energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
Here’s a chart showing oil production over the past decade. Why do Biden and his team look at this chart and conclude that we should get some more oil from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East?
Or view in terms of percentage change:
From 2011 through 2022 oil production increased by 110 percent in the United States, but fell slightly in Saudi Arabia and increased by only 11 percent in the UAE. Saudi Arabia and the UAE may be able to increase oil supplies (but at the recent G7 meeting French President Macron told Biden it might not happen) but why is Biden ignoring the track record of the United States, and why is he ignoring the additional supplies we could get from our neighbor and ally Canada? Biden slammed the door shut on Canadian oil his first week in office by revoking the Keystone XL pipeline. We produce far more oil than Saudi Arabia and obviously we have the potential to produce far more. Canada is our number one source of imports, and transport by pipeline is much better for the environment than transporting from the Middle East.
Instead of fostering domestic oil production to improve the economy, further increasing energy security, and alleviating the need to beg OPEC+ for oil, Biden has constantly attacked oil and gas production in the United States by taking more than 100 actions to make it harder to produce oil and gas here.
It makes no sense, and it isn’t passing muster with the American public. Biden says he’s “working like the devil” to bring gas prices down. In truth, his actions against North American oil production have driven up prices for American consumers while contributing to global instability and a weaker United States reduced to begging others for oil.
*This article was originally published by the Institute for Energy Research.