William Manning writes for the American Thinker about holes in the U.S. government’s approach to energy policy.
The Biden administration, like all political enterprises, loves to take credit but is loath to confess mistakes. Biden is currently looking for someone, anyone, to take the fall far escalating gasoline prices. A favorite scapegoat is the oil and gas industry.
According to many Democrats, the industry is a blight on humanity that must be canceled. High oil prices fit the DNC playbook, so be prepared to view morose montages displaying diabolical men drilling dirty oil wells. In an odd turn of events, these diabolical oil executives are being scolded because they aren’t drilling oil wells as quickly as President Biden would like. Some Democrats accuse executives in the oil industry of being unpatriotic in light of the Russo-Ukrainian war (read: Putin’s price hike). Industry executives would respond more favorably to a coherent energy policy than harassment by politicians.
Government policies related to the COVID pandemic reduced demand for oil, so the industry stopped drilling activities. As the pandemic abated, and the economy improved, the Biden administration took office intent on canceling the oil industry. As demand for oil increased, the industry wasn’t inclined to invest in drilling. Oil companies enjoyed higher prices after a difficult year, while lenders and investors, burned by the 2020 bust, resisted financing new ventures. The industry was content to earn money on existing production and hesitant to invest capital in the unfriendly environment the Biden administration had created.
The Biden administration only recently began permitting oil and gas leases. When asked if the Biden’s people would support increased oil production, the White House response was that “there are 9,000 oil leases the oil industry isn’t tapping into currently.”
The White House talking heads would have you believe that oil leases are like juice boxes. You just push a straw through a predesigned hole and suck the contents out.
