Trump-Era Oil Trends Could Have Produced 850 Million More Barrels Under Biden: Expert

Workers exit the Marathon Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, on May 10, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The United States is producing hundreds of millions fewer barrels of oil per day than it could have if the Biden administration had sought to continue Trump-era policies, an energy expert told members of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Committee at a March 29 hearing.

“Had the Biden administration simply mirrored the Trump administration’s production growth rate, daily oil production would have reached almost 15 million barrels by December 2022,” said Oliver McPherson-Smith, director for energy, trade, and environmental policy at the American Consumer Institute.

“This represents a hypothetical shortfall of almost 3 million barrels each day by December 2022, a significantly larger amount than the average OPEC member’s production of 2.23 million barrels per day in that same month.”

Oil pump jacks in California on Oct. 5, 2022. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

All told, the U.S. is down by more than 850 million barrels since January 2021 from what might have been, according to McPherson-Smith’s analysis. He also drew attention to trends in U.S. crude oil distillation capacity, which has fallen to 18 million barrels per day currently from 18.8 million barrels per day at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“America’s capacity to refine its own petroleum products has undergone an even starker decline,” he testified.

McPherson-Smith said the Keystone XL pipeline cancellation and other Biden administration policies have played a role in driving down domestic oil production, alongside other factors.

The hearing took place against the backdrop of House Republicans’ attempt to pass the “Lower Energy Costs Act” (HR 1).

‘Big Oil’ Wishlist

While the White House has threatened to veto the bill, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told The Daily Mail that he believes that the Biden administration could very well “reverse course.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called HR 1 “a non-starter in the Senate” and a “wishlist for Big Oil.”

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) joined the chorus of Democrat skeptics during the March 29 hearing.

“Republicans are wasting our time on the preposterous and offensive oil industry wishlist that House Republicans are bringing to the floor for a vote this week, as the ‘Polluters Over People Act,’” said Bush, who’s the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), who chairs the subcommittee, said rising energy prices are exacting a heavy toll on poorer Americans, as high fuel prices eat up a relatively larger share of their budgets.

He asked McPherson-Smith about the scale of energy inflation during the current administration.

McPherson-Smith said it was “up about 40 percent” under Biden since January 2021.

“That’s down from the 60 percent we saw last summer,” McPherson-Smith noted.

Climate Change Crisis

Rutgers University professor Mark Paul, another witness, argued that “climate change is the greatest crisis humanity has faced.”

He testified that a move away from oil and gas would “delink the U.S. economy from hostile authoritarian regimes.”

Yet robust evidence shows that a transition from fossil fuels risks strengthening America’s dependence on China’s communist regime that’s increasingly hostile to U.S. interests.

“Unfortunately, Republican plans are intended to increase the extraction of fossil fuels,” Paul told Rep. Shontell Brown (D-Ohio), who accused Republicans of pushing “misinformation.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) asked Paul whether he supports nationalizing the U.S. oil industry. Paul said that he does.

She called that a “communist-style takeover.”