Climate Change ‘Irony’: Restricting American Oil and Gas Output Ultimately Harms Environment, Report Says

President Joe Biden hands Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) the pen he used to sign into law the Inflation Reduction Act at the White House, on Aug. 16, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Attempts to restrict oil and natural gas production in the United States would result in negative impacts on the environment, according to a recent report, coming at a time when the Biden administration has taken several steps to curtail domestic fossil fuel activity.

Over the past years, there has arisen a “political movement centered in North America and Europe” which focuses on halting oil and gas production in these regions, according to The Environmental Quality Index report (pdf) published by the Institute for Energy Research (IER) this month. “The great irony is that this political movement—which purports to be about protecting the environment—results in oil and natural gas production moving from countries with the highest environmental standards to countries with lower, or even functionally zero, environmental standards,” the report notes.

“Reductions or limitations on domestic U.S. oil production must be made up elsewhere in the remaining major oil-producing countries, which have far lower environmental standards than the U.S.”

The report analyzed the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) produced by Yale University and found that the United States had an EPI score of 51.1. Meanwhile, the 20 largest oil-producing nations outside the United States had an average EPI score of 39. A lower score indicates poor performance concerning the impact to the environment.

“It means the average barrel of non-U.S. petroleum is produced in a country with an environmental score that is 23.6 percent lower than that of the U.S.”

The 20 largest non-U.S. natural gas producers had an average EPI of 38.6, which is 24.5 percent lower than the U.S. EPI, essentially meaning that environmental degradation increases when production is taken out of the country.

A similar situation is happening in the mining industry, where President Biden has imposed a multi-decade moratorium on thousands of acres of land within the country citing the need to protect the natural environment.

Besides the loss of revenue for U.S. businesses, national mineral self-sufficiency and loss of high-paying domestic jobs, this economical transfer has resulted in boosting mining projects in troubled regions such as Congo, where Chinese companies exploit workers, engage in slave labor, and disregard environmental factors.

High Global Output and Low Emissions

The United States is the world’s largest producer of both natural gas and oil. According to the report, only three nations outranked the country on environmental quality in terms of oil production. When it came to gas output, also only three nations scored above America.

However, among these nations, not one produces 25 percent of the gas and oil that the United States outputs.

“All oil production from countries scoring higher on environmental quality amounts to only 35.7 percent of U.S. production, and that from gas-producing countries is only 33.4 percent of U.S. production,” the report noted.

“The sheer size of U.S. production combined with its excellent environmental standards means that U.S. production disproportionately reduces the environmental harms of oil and gas production on a global scale.”

The report also notes that while the U.S. output of natural gas and oil has grown over the last four decades, pollution and emissions “have steadily declined across sources.”

“Contrary to popular media characterizations, wealth created by energy development in free economies enhances environmental performance while making people’s lives better,” the IER report stated.

Restricting American Production

Since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Biden administration has tried to fill the gap of missing Russian production by seeking to import oil from authoritarian countries like Venezuela.

The IER report pointed out that “the environmental impact of Venezuelan oil has become continually more severe.” Earlier, Republican lawmakers had also criticized the Biden administration for the decision.

“President Biden is currently sitting on more than 4,400 pending applications for permits to drill. There is no reason to drill abroad when we have an abundance of clean, affordable, American-made energy,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Tex.) stated in a tweet on Nov. 30.

Biden is the only president since Richard Nixon to lease less than 4.4 million acres of land in the first 19 months of their first term. Under Biden, the Department of Interior leased only 126,228 acres during this period, and there is a moratorium on oil and gas leases.

Biden suspended oil production leases in the Arctic National Wildlife that former President Trump had opened up for production during his time.

The American Exploration and Production Council, a national trade association representing the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States, cited the Biden administration’s policies as weighing down on the industry in a blog post in May 2022.

“Unfortunately, this administration’s policies are restricting supply by hamstringing production on federal lands and waters, making it harder to build much-needed infrastructure, and discouraging industry capital with policies and rhetoric about the long-term value of American oil and gas.”