‘Democrats have a plan for American energy: make it harder to produce and more expensive to purchase,’ the Institute for Energy Research wrote.
President Joe Biden has taken more than 200 actions against the U.S. oil and gas industry, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Research (IER).
“President Biden and Democrats have a plan for American energy: make it harder to produce and more expensive to purchase,” IER wrote in the March report.
“Since Mr. Biden took office, his administration and its allies have taken over 200 actions deliberately designed to make it harder to produce energy here in America.”
The analysis lists each of President Biden’s actions against the industry in chronological order, beginning on his first day in office, Jan. 20, 2021, through the first week of March 2024.
On his first day in office, President Biden revoked the March 2019 permit for the Keystone Pipeline, canceled all oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and revoked President Donald Trump’s executive orders to decrease regulations to expand domestic production.
In his second week, the president canceled new oil and gas leases on public lands or offshore waters and issued new regulations for permitting and leasing practices, which had been mired in litigation for years.
Last month, a federal court upheld the first new oil and natural gas lease sale on federal lands. In December, the Fifth Circuit also ruled to allow Gulf lease sales to proceed.
Before the 2022 midterms, the Biden administration blamed the oil and gas industry for excessive pricing, accusing them of profiteering and threatening producers with a “windfall profits tax.”
“‘Their profits are a windfall of war,’ Mr. Biden said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the reason for high prices for oil and gasoline,” the report said, adding that the president “could easily increase domestic oil production” by reversing the oil and gas policies he enacted on his first day in the White House.
Last month, the Biden administration proposed $110 billion in tax hikes on oil, gas, natural gas, and coal. The proposal prompted a coalition of two dozen U.S. senators to send a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressing “grave concern for the administration’s continued hostility towards American energy production.”
The coalition, led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), warned that the action would “threaten American families’ access to affordable and reliable energy while giving our adversaries the upper hand in global energy markets.”
The IER report followed the administration’s latest action to push up the cost of U.S. oil production and cancel plans to restock the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has been depleted by about half since President Biden took office.
“President Biden had the chance to top up the SPR when prices were still low during the pandemic, but anti-oil-and-gas ideologues within the administration couldn’t bear to do anything that would help out producers when demand was low,” Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma told The Centre Square news outlet.
He then drained it “for political reasons, and it’s long overdue to fill the SPR back up. Like many other politically driven decisions from this administration that distort energy markets, the government will have to spend more taxpayer money than if it had rational energy policies.”
Texas Leads Nation in Oil and Gas
Last month, U.S. House Republicans, along with a handful of Texas Democrats, passed several bills and resolutions aimed at building up the domestic oil and gas industry. Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) President Ed Longanecker told The Center Square that the administration’s decision to deplete 250 million barrels of oil from the SPR was a “dangerous example of putting politics over national security.
“The fact that some will believe the decision to cancel contracts to refill the SPR is due to a newly discovered fiscal consciousness is both nonsensical and alarming,” he continued. “Poorly conceived, albeit intentional, energy policy results in higher costs for consumers, global emissions, and inflation while putting our economy and energy security at risk.”
Texas leads the nation in oil and gas production. In 2023, the state produced a record 1.99 billion barrels of oil and 12.2 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) of gas, according to TIPRO.
The majority of its production takes place on private land, and the state also boasts the bipartisan support of elected officials and regulatory agencies.
Texas LNG exports provided a “lifeline” to European countries when Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a TIPRO analysis.
“With so much uncertainty in the world, the need for reliable, responsibly produced energy from a stable trading partner has never been more crucial,” Texas Oil & Gas Association President Todd Staples told reporters earlier this year.
“Texas is that trade partner. Our producers, pipelines, refineries, and exporters answer the call to alleviate the global energy crisis, made worse by war.”
He added that the state’s record production comes despite federal policies “designed to undermine progress.”
“Growth like we’ve seen in Texas is not only unprecedented, it is not guaranteed,” Mr. Satples continued. “We cannot take for granted that this industry can continue to rewrite its record book in the face of federal policies blatantly designed to undermine progress.
“Delayed permits, canceled pipeline projects, closed and delayed federal leasing programs, and incoherent regulations hurt American consumers and stifle our ability to deliver energy freedom and security around the world.”
