Former President Barack Obama said he is to thank, not President Trump, for making the U.S. an oil-producing powerhouse.
“I was extraordinarily proud of the Paris accords because … I know we’re in oil country and we need American energy and, by the way, American energy production,” Obama said at a Rice University gala in Houston on Tuesday.
“You wouldn’t always know it, but it went up every year I was president. That whole, suddenly America’s like the biggest oil producer and the biggest gas — that was me, people,” he added to cheers.
Obama: “Suddenly America is the largest oil producer, that was me people … say thank you.” pic.twitter.com/VfQfX1SR0x
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 28, 2018
Obama then said he had a message for anyone in Wall Street who complained about “anti-business” measures.
“Sometimes you go to Wall Street and folks will be grumbling about anti-business. I said, ‘Have you check where your stocks where your stocks were when I came into office [and] where they are now? What are you complaining about. Just say thank you please,'” Obama quipped.
The Energy Information Administration said recently that the U.S. has surpassed both Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil production.
Last year, the U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas, which means it exported more than it imported.
Trump has made oil and natural gas exports a key piece of his energy dominance agenda and effort to stop Europe from importing energy from Russia.
Obama had taken steps during his administration to regulate emissions from oil and gas wells, which the Trump administration is in the process of repealing.
