Two hours after his inauguration, President Joe Biden signed his first executive orders. Having been co-opted by the climate catastrophe wing of the Democratic Party, Biden severely curtailed American production of oil and gas. The effects are felt across the nation today.
Supply and demand always function in a seesaw relationship. By severely restricting the supply of oil and gas, prices increased dramatically, now more than double what they were before Biden took office.
Seeking to mitigate the political damage of inflated oil and gas prices before the midterm elections, Biden released nearly 200 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, which is now at its lowest level since 1984. Biden’s raid on the reserve produced a tiny, transient reduction in prices, which are now approaching $4 per gallon nationally and more than $6 per gallon in California.
INTERIOR SAYS IT IS FORCED TO HOLD CANCELED OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASE SALES
This silliness has geopolitical ramifications.
Vladimir Putin now cuts energy supplies to European Union nations, hoping to force them to stop providing military aid to Ukraine. At the same time, Biden turns to enemies such as Venezuela to sell us oil. They are happy to do so, following the advice of Karl Marx: “Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” And when Biden begged a so-called ally such as Saudi Arabia for more oil, Riyadh responded by cutting production!
California offers a perfect example of the self-destructive nature of green energy policy. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) recently signed a law banning the sale of gasoline cars in the Golden State as of 2035. At the same time as he signed the bill, Newsom urged Californians not to charge their electric cars and to turn down their home or work thermostats because the electric grid cannot handle the demand. What good are electric vehicles with no electricity?
The costs of Biden’s energy policy include out-of-control inflation, brownouts, even blackouts, and a weakened position globally. The benefit of Biden’s attack on fossil fuels is, presumably, lessening damage to the climate. Yet the immediate and obvious question is this: If the U.S. reduces its oil and gas production while other countries increase production to compensate, how does that help the environment?
Indeed, Venezuela, Canada, and Russia produce some of the dirtiest oil in the world, releasing large amounts of methane and sulfur into the atmosphere. By contrast, the U.S. produces some of the cleanest oil and gas. If President Biden truly wanted to be kind to the planet, he would encourage production in our country.
Put simply, the situation is absurd.
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Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is professor emeritus of pediatrics, pathology, and decision science, former director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and author of the book Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.
