Joe Biden ran for office as an anti-petroleum “green” fanatic. He promised to end drilling for oil and gas so as to enable a transition to energy sources that work only occasionally:
Joe Biden in 2020: "No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more drilling including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill period. It ends." pic.twitter.com/90MVJevPmv
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) March 8, 2022
But that was then, and this is now. With gas prices over $5 a gallon–a goal long desired by the Democratic Party–Biden’s approval rating is tanking toward unprecedented lows, and the midterm elections shape up as a wipeout for the Dems.
All of which has driven Biden to a level of chutzpah rarely seen in the admittedly chutzpah-filled arena of politics. Yesterday he sent a letter to a number of oil companies, embedded below, demanding that they produce more oil:
Your companies and others have an opportunity to take immediate actions to increase the supply of gasoline, diesel, and other refined product you are producing and supplying to the United States market. With prices for your product where they are today, you have ample market incentive to take these actions, and I recognize that some of you have already begun to do so. I also encourage you to continue maintaining and expanding fuel supply safely.
In addition, my Administration is prepared to use all reasonable and appropriate Federal Government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term, and to ensure that every region of this country is appropriately supplied. Already, I have invoked emergency powers to execute the largest Strategic Petroleum Reserve release in history, expand access to E15 (gasoline with 15% ethanol), and authorize the use of the Defense Production Act to provide reliable inputs into energy production. I am prepared to use all tools at my disposal, as appropriate, to address barriers to providing Americans affordable, secure energy supply.
So, after spending the last year and a half doing everything possible to suppress production of oil and gas so as to enable a fantastical “transition” to energy sources that don’t work, the Biden administration, now panicked, is pursuing–or at least pretending to pursue–the energy policies of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.
Better late than never, I suppose.
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