According to experts contacted by TASS, US President Joe Biden’s appeal to OPEC nations to abandon oil output restrictions in order to reduce gasoline costs in the US demonstrated the controversies surrounding American energy policy.
The US government is aggressively limiting the oil sector inside the nation in order to achieve decarbonization objectives. This may be a political ploy to reroute money flows from the global fuel and energy complex in favor of US banking regulators.
Last week, Biden said that “the United States has made it plain to OPEC that the production cutbacks implemented during the epidemic should be restored when the global economy improves in order to reduce consumer costs.”
The White House subsequently clarified that it meant the inadequacy of OPEC+’s plan to raise production by 400,000 barrels per day per month from August until the curbs are fully phased out. The US government justified its plea by attempting to decrease domestic gasoline costs, which have risen by 46% in the last year to $3.18 per gallon on average throughout the nation.
This reasoning, however, has been challenged in the United States as well. Earlier this week, a group of senators headed by Jim Inhofe sent a letter to Biden in which they condemned the White House’s conduct.
The senators pointed out that America has enough reserves to boost output, while the Biden administration’s domestic oil and gas development policies “harm American consumers and employees, run counter to a “America First” energy strategy, and strengthen dependence on foreign oil.”
According to the senators, Biden, in particular, cancelled the Keystone XL project, placed a seemingly permanent halt on oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands and seas, and suggested raising taxes on individuals involved in oil and gas development.
These measures, according to the senators, raise the price of fuel and do not promote American interests. They request that Biden alter it.
Nikita Krichevsky, an economist, agrees with the senators.
“President Biden’s call to OPEC to boost oil output in order to reduce gasoline costs while discriminating against its own oil and gas industry is absurd,” he told TASS.
Senators, in his perspective, are essentially admitting that the principles of decarbonization, which the Biden administration has proclaimed sacrosanct, are ridiculous, not just from an environmental but also from an economic one.
“The age of hydrocarbons is far from finished,” he said, adding that “the new American President’s policies presents a danger to both the US economy and the world market.”
According to Alexei Mukhin, director of the Center for Political Information, the senators’ demand to “make America great again” entails renouncing the “green” illusions promoted by the financial elite, who backed Biden’s candidacy against opponents from the real sector.
Mukhin added that the letter indicated one basic idea, which is that “a premature and artificial rejection of oil would weaken the American economy’s position in the world and cause significant instability in the US.”
