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“The OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries decided Wednesday to sharply cut production to support sagging oil prices, a move that could deal the struggling global economy another blow and raise politically sensitive pump prices for U.S. drivers just ahead of key national elections… The OPEC+ decision could help member Russia weather a looming European ban on most of Moscow’s oil, but its impact will have some limitations because countries in the alliance already can’t meet their quotas.” AP News
The right criticizes the Biden administration for discouraging US oil production.
“It would be a mild exaggeration to declare that the Biden administration has completely stopped issuing leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands and in federal waters, but only a mild one. As the Wall Street Journal reported last month, ‘President Biden’s Interior Department leased 126,228 acres for drilling through Aug. 20, his first 19 months in office, the analysis found. No other president since Richard Nixon in 1969-70 leased out fewer than 4.4 million acres at this stage in his first term.’…
“The U.S. has an estimated 38.2 billion barrels of proven reserves, meaning that if we never imported another drop, we could operate for 5.2 years at our current level of demand… The U.S. could be minimally impacted by the decisions of OPEC+ if we wanted to be. Back in 2018, you saw headlines such as, ‘How The Fracking Revolution Broke OPEC’s Hold On Oil Prices.’ We choose to be dependent upon the goodwill of oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia because genuine energy independence would require us to enact policies that environmentalists don’t like.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
“Biden wants to cut a deal with Nicolas Maduro and let Chevron pay the Venezuelan dictator rather than create jobs and energy independence at home… Our energy policy now rests on the good faith of Nicolas Maduro, a tyrant who has reduced Venezuela from a comfortable democracy to a socialist economic disaster…
“To keep gas prices from skyrocketing before the midterm cycle finishes, the White House will [also] drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of an additional 10 million barrels, bringing it to its lowest level since 1985… but the 10 million barrels are a drop in the bucket to the planned OPEC+ production cutback of two million barrels a day…
“Worse, it demonstrates a complete lack of strategic thinking, both on energy policy and for global security. The US needs to have strategic flexibility on oil and natural gas output in order to counter moves such as the OPEC+ cutback on production.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
“If Trump policies had continued, finds a new Committee To Unleash Prosperity study, the United States would be producing 2 million to 3 million more barrels of oil, and at least 20 billion more cubic feet of natural gas, a day than it is now. And GDP would be about $100 billion more a year… The real answer to the energy crisis is simple: Drill, baby, drill here at home. Too bad the nation needs to get the Democrats out of power to do that.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
The left highlights the tradeoffs between oil production and green energy, and urges Congress to punish OPEC.
The left highlights the tradeoffs between oil production and green energy, and urges Congress to punish OPEC.
“[Western nations] willed the ends — a world no longer dependent on fossil fuels as soon as possible. But they did not will the means to reach that goal in a stable way… In Europe they pretended — with Putin’s covert encouragement — that they could abandon large-scale, largely emissions-free energy like nuclear power, as the Germans did, and just jump directly to intermittent wind, solar and other renewables…
“[In America] Green progressives demonized the oil and gas industry — for good reasons in some cases because of how much the industry worked to deny the reality of climate change and refused to clean up its own act — and basically told it to please go off and die somewhere quietly, while we moved to wind and solar…
“Oil and gas investors and bankers got the message and began delaying or stopping investment in new oil and gas production at home, and instead focused on reaping as much profit as they could from existing wells… [Meanwhile] Putin and M.B.S. are laughing all the way to the bank.”
Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
Some argue that both “unexplained refinery shutdowns and snap decisions by oil-producing nations can reverberate in the midterm elections… [We need to] end the use of the internal combustion engine as soon as possible. Propping up and/or begging authoritarian regimes for the petroleum within their borders carries grave consequences, as does oil companies hijacking our economy and national elections simply by shutting down a refinery. There’s an environmental imperative to finding a way out of these dynamics, but we shouldn’t discount the political imperatives as well.”
David Dayen, American Prospect
“All this has the potential to produce a clarifying moment… [Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ)] is introducing a bill designed to increase pressure on OPEC and its allies to reverse the move. The bill would require the removal of U.S. troops and missile defense systems from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates… Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) is calling for reforms to antitrust legislation that would strip OPEC and its allies of immunity to U.S. lawsuits…
“‘If we’re serious about strengthening democracy against authoritarianism, this would be a good moment to seriously reassess the United States’ long-standing relationship with one of the worst authoritarian governments in the world,’ [a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders] told me. That is something Democrats of all kinds should be able to get behind.”
Greg Sargent, Washington Post
