Biden Didn’t Do This
Dear Editor,
I am tired of seeing “Biden Did This” stickers on gas pumps. So here is my point of view that doesn’t fit on a sticker.
For me, there is no question the Biden administration has mishandled the economy by initially treating the spike in inflation as a temporary phenomenon related to the supply chain issues. Now the fed is taking dramatic action which is never a good thing. But …
… the president’s policies have little to no direct impact on cost of oil/gasoline. Never has. Never will. The three main arguments you hear that Biden is the cause of the spike in gas prices are as follows:
- He canceled the construction of the Keystone pipeline.
So what? The pipeline wasn’t online and wasn’t going to be online in time to have any impact on this crisis so clearly has no immediate impact on price of gasoline.
- Biden’s policies restrict ability for oil companies to lease and drill on federal lands.
Thanks to the courts, one year after announcing a halt to any new federal oil and gas leasing, Biden has outpaced the Trump administration in issuing drilling permits on public lands. Including the largest offshore lease sale last year in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Biden is browbeating banks into reducing capital lending to oil companies and restricting their ability to ramp up production.
Big oil has made record profits from the spike in crude oil. For 2021, cash from operations increased from $10 billion to over $25 billion. Capital spending has increased from $6 billion to over $15 billion.
But the truth is in the numbers. If Biden has been so negative to Big Oil, we should see an impact in the US oil production figures. Nope. Here are the facts per US Energy Information Agency (EIA).
- We remain energy neutral as of end of 2021 (this doesn’t mean what a lot of Trumpers thinks it means).
- US Oil Production is above levels prior to Biden taking office:
Jan 2021 monthly production (thousands of barrels per day) was 11,056 and as of March 2022 it is 11,655.
- US Oil Production was dropping well before Biden took office:
March 2020 – 12,816 but by Dec 2020 it had dropped to 11,084. (Peak production was 12,966 in Nov 2019). It is expected to reach peak levels again in 2023 per the EIA.
- Oil Imports haven’t spiked due to lack of US production and are well below peak levels under Trump.
Pre-Pandemic Imports (Jan 2019) were 234,307 (thousands of barrels) and total post pandemic (March 2022) is 198,883. So still not back to pre-pandemic levels.
If Biden’s policies have had any impact that would increase prices (read restrict production), the numbers are not showing much if any negative impact to US oil production at a level to explain any part of the increase in gas prices.
So where are the price increases coming from? Oil is a global market, so price is impacted by global supply and demand.
- War in Ukraine disrupting oil markets. Russia as the 2nd largest in crude oil production (US is 1st). With many countries blocking oil imports from Russia, it has had the effect of reducing global supply.
- Spiking demand. Demand fell sharply during covid pandemic lock downs. Demand is returning to pre-pandemic level faster than producing countries are able or willing to increase production.
- OPEC Slashed Production: OPEC’s oil exports represent about 60 percent of the total petroleum traded internationally. In 2020, OPEC reduced production by over 20 percent. They have increased production during the last two quarters but remain below peak production of 2019.
- US isn’t helping with production enough as Big Oil likes the $. For example, Exon announced a $30 billion share repurchase plan, far more than the $21 billion to $24 billion it expects to spend on all capital investment, including searching for new oil. They don’t seem in a rush to ramp up production, do they?
Republicans can name all the reasons to blame Biden but are completely unable to show any correlation to reductions in US production or increases in US imports as a result. Why? Because the correlation doesn’t exist. Never has. Never will. It makes great talking points for mid-term elections which is all any politician cares about. They certainly don’t care about the truth.
Christian Rice
Believe you need to continue voting Democrat….and enjoy the total mess they have created….nationally and locally.
I independent and Biden was the only alternative to the worst choice of Trump. Plus, this is economics. Not politics.
There are a number of things wrong with your thesis. This excerpt for WSJ yesterday corrects some of them:
“On his first day in office, Mr. Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and halted new leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A week later, he banned new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters, and in June he shut down exploration on existing leases in ANWR. In October, he increased the regulatory burdens on building pipelines and other infrastructure. This February he limited leasing in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. At every turn Team Biden has worked to restrict and reduce domestic oil and gas production.
“Almost a year after a federal judge enjoined the White House from implementing its pause on leases in federal lands and waters, the administration in April finally offered 144,400 acres for exploration— only 20% of the acreage originally slated for this tranche of leases. The administration also raised the federal royalty by 50%, increasing the cost on American consumers. It nominated regulatory officials hostile to fossil fuels and issued climate disclosure rules that made lenders skittish about providing capital.
“Team Biden got what it wanted: Daily U.S. oil production dropped from 12.29 million barrels in 2019 to an estimated 11.85 million in 2022, well after demand had rebounded from the pandemic.” C. Rove
WF, good post. The sound you hear is “crickets” from Christian Rice, who is . . . let me guess. . . .a democrat.
Pipeline means nothing to price
Courts overturned his authority to stop leases
Daily volume of bpd dropped to 11 million before he took office.
Try again
The only thing you can do when confronted by contrary facts; is to cover your ears, shake your head from side to side, and holler NYA-NYA-NYA-NYA, NYAN-AEE, NYA, NYA as loud as you can.
What did my addressing not cover. Happy to repeat my arguments that stands on it own.
You may have some valid points, but the bottom line is that Biden and minions are destroying this country.
Also, Biden is a total IDIOT!
Biden is awful. No question here. But Republicans are doing their damage as well.
WOW……This guy really drank the Kool-Aid.
Dose Biden’ threat of a windfall-profits tax make energy companies more likely to invest in more production?
Oil and gas production saw only a 4.7% net profit margin last year. Compare that with Microsoft’s 39% net margin, Facebook’s 33%, Google’s 30% and Apple’s 27%. Mr. Biden won’t confiscate tech company profits, because their corporate heads are his allies.
Biden is a figurehead mannikin for a corrupt ruling class. Your making light of his hostility to the production of more energy is wrong.
Mr Rice
You fail to mention the following that Joe Biden said while running for president.
Biden also said there would be “no more coal plants.“
Biden’s hostility to energy industry workers is nothing new, either. In December he suggested if coal miners lose their job due to his policies they should learn to code.
Biden has also said “we should put them in jail” when talking about fossil fuel executives.
Biden also endorsed a carbon tax on the American people, which will force households to pay much higher gasoline, heating, and cooling bills.
Biden has also endorsed a fracking ban. If elected, Biden’s fracking ban will devastate the economies of several battleground states, as noted by Steve Moore in the Wall Street Journal:
When he killed the Keystone Pipe line he just told the oil business that he was following through with what he said he was going to do.
We are all getting what he promised on the campaign trail and what many people voted for. I hope all of you who voted for him are really liking these high gas prices and The inflation we are having. Just wait for his carbon tax hits us all. All of us will enjoy paying those higher taxes as well. Like a very intelligent person once told me you get what you voted for and that’s what we are experiencing now.
This administration is a joke and the media that protects him and defends his actions is a joke as well.
No coal plants yet we remain energy independent. Plus as I do see climate change as man made, clean coal was a lie.
Franking ban didn’t stand up to courts as I recall.
No question Biden is pro renewable energy and anti Big Oil. Better than a president who thinks climate change is a China conspiracy theory.
But Bide. Is certainly drill baby drill now isn’t he. But big oil is in no hurry with their profits hitting record levels.
Christian: Instead of getting your so called “facts” from the US Energy Information Agency which is a tool of the US government, try getting information from the American Petroleum Institute (API). They are apolitical which the EIA certainly is not. Also, speak to some of us geologists who are familiar with the issues that are keeping production down. Biden keeps telling the oil companies to “get refineries back open” while at the same time the green new deal is setting the stage for continued de-emphasis on fossil fuels. It takes a long time to get a refinery back on line and operating. Many of our refineries shut down during the pandemic because of a drop in demand and their concern over the administration’s policies to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. The US does not need to import any petroleum. We have between 50-100 years of proven resources today without any improvements in technology or finding more resources. The green new dealers have much more to blame than the oil companies. Stop drinking the kool-aid and get your facts from a reliable source; not the US government.
Too lazy to share the facts are you? Lol. Whose kool-aid are you drinking.
Ok genius, I’ll tell you where you are wrong. If Trump were President ,Putin would have never invaded Ukraine. Trump kept Russia, China, Iran and N Korea in check. Trump wanted to get rid of powell for not acting too soon on runaway government spending. Janet yellen’s big stupid mouth doesn’t help either. So Biden has about 80% blame for extraordinary high gas prices.
Right. Trump would have handed a free democracy over to a communist dictator free and clear. You know…cuz communist are so cool.
Here here
Apparently you can’t come to terms with the ineptitude of this president and more importantly his far left wing of the Democratic Party which I believe you identify with. The war against oil companies started the first day of his administration and continues to this day. If you owned a company that the current federal government said was going to basically put you out of business in a few years then you to would make every penny possible so yes directly and indirectly your president and party are responsible
Sure, he is anti big oil. But big oil won in the courts. He is anti gun too. But lost to them in the courts. He is awful. He was just better than the anti democracy Trump Klan who i certainly don’t identify with either. But economics is economics. Gas prices have far many other causes not in any Presidents control. Not everything is politics. Some things just suck. Kinda like how Trumpers claim the covid economics impact wasn’t Trumps fault. (I think it partially was but certainly not avoidable by any president)
Most of your production related points have to do with a little thing called COVID. Production was down in 2020 and 2021 because no one was traveling. Less demand means less produced. Production is up again because people are traveling again.
Right. Glad you agree. A big part of the price decline was covid related. So on top of post covid increase in prices you add OPEC actions, War in Europe, and US oil banking profits and you end up where we are today. Glad we agree
No pipeline, lease restrictions BS.
An amazingly well researched and documented retort to those who buy in to the R’s sweeping condemnation of everything Biden. Like the Trump “Big Lie,” it will be shredded to pieces when the true, not alternative, facts are unveiled. Thx for sharing!
What flavor of cool-aid are you drinking today?
What a great spin on a problem this Administration has purposely made.
Please forward this to your leadership in Washington. They could use your help explaining why this all started the day they took office.
There’s not enough space to rebut all these points here.
Suffice to say OPEC is not our friend and neither is this administration.
If you could you would but you can’t so you use excuse of space?
Thanks for the explanation as to why gas is at it’s highest level in history. Of course, none of it is this administration’s fault. But I am a little uncertain about why Biden thinks it’s necessary to suck up to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to pump more oil when America is energy dependent. Why do we need their oil? We didn’t need it two years ago.
I do understand Big Oil’s stance. Biden declared war on fossil fuels his first day in office. If I’m the head of any of the big oil companies, I’m going to make as much money as I can on the current economic situation, because my company is going to be defunct soon. I wouldn’t spend a dime on increasing production to get Biden out of a bind, knowing that he will pull the rug out from under them as soon as prices come down.
I think it a little naive to think that all this finger pointing and reaching out to the Saudi’s to increase oil production to get gas prices down has nothing to do with the mid term elections for your team. Record inflation, record gas prices, a bear market, an out of control border crisis. None of this is Joe Biden’s administration’s fault. And I have no doubt that in the near future more looting, rioting, burning down of businesses in the name of social justice will be the next ploy to keep power in November. Especially now that you have Roe vs Wade to light the match.
But you keep blaming the Trumpsters and Putin for all the issues America is facing now. Just pull the stickers off when you see them. Although those are at gas pumps aren’t they. Surely you have an electric vehicle. Isn’t that what Biden told everyone to do to combat evil Big Oil and high gas prices. Go out and buy and electric car, man.
I don’t have electric car but I am investing in solar power and water storage and filtration as climate change gets worse.
“…climate change gets worse” Yet the doomsday predictions of the climate prophets never materialize. Could it be the operable word is ‘profits’ rather than ‘prophets’? As my meteorologist son-in-law’s professor at Creighton University laughingly told his students when asked if ‘Global Warming’–that was the popular term when my son-in-law was pursuing his Masters–was real, he said, “It’s as real as the money it makes for those pushing it” AND “The claim will continue as long as it profits & empowers”. When Global Cooling did’t pan out they took the opposite approach with Global Warming–as that one fizzled, an idea like an incandescent bulb, er, LED, light, dawned on the climate hustlers’ thought, and voila! Let’s call it Climate Change! Whew–now ANYTHING will qualify as ‘Climate Change’…we’re good.
Actually most of the climate scientists predictions have been exceeded I terms of melting ice, tempature increase etc….all worse than they originally forecasted.
Don’t confuse media attempting to create clicks versus actual scientific predictions. No one forecasted rapid cooling outside of basic potential theory outside scope of their models….
Just look at global Temps, accelerating shrinkage of glaciers, massive droughts in some areas, and massive flooding in others. Climate cha gr is real. Just look at the world around you. Not pretty. Maybe that will be my next letter.
Just proves, again, you should never, ever, overestimate the intelligence of the average American voter.
Christian Rice – I’ll bet you didn’t realize you were stepping in deep ‘do do.’
This guy’s fallacies, inaccuracies, non-sequiturs and outright misrepresentations were exposed for all to see in the Comments Section of the Letters of June 17th.
I encourage everyone to check it out, if you’re interested.
It’s an eye-opener.
I made a typo in those comments when transferring the table data. Hence I wrote this letter. Now that I made error free comments, you seem unable to refute them. Not surprised.
Oh no buddy, those lies were no typo. You misrepresented facts – facts which you had presented to bolster your argument – and you were caught in a lie.
You never expected anyone to click on your link and check it out, but I did, examined the chart, and uncovered your deception.
You are intellectually dishonest, your are a demagogue, you are disingenuous, you are two-faced, you are a hypocrite, you are a bigot who likes to disparage others as bigots, and you are a blowhard who loves the sound of his own voice, and you are an individual who believes he’s in the top 1% intellectually but who can barely scrape into the top 10%.
In short, you’re a wanker.
Refute my articles points. You know you can’t.
No, you can’t.