Within two years of being in office, Donald Trump achieved something many presidents had promised without success: energy independence. Abandoning old ideas that repeatedly failed, Trump took a small-government approach to energy: By doing so, domestic oil companies could increase supply, enabling the United States to export more oil than it imported for the first time in 70 years by the end of 2018. Fast forward to August 2021, and Joe Biden is calling on OPEC to boost oil production in order to drive down prices at the pump.
To put gas prices in perspective, they have risen over $1 per gallon since the 2020 election.
Gas prices are up over $1/gal since the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/i9U2vECE37
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) August 12, 2021
“The president recognizes that gas prices can put a pinch on the family budget,” a senior White House official told CNBC. “He’d like his administration to use whatever tools that it has to help address the cost of gas, to help bring those prices down.”
That news comes as a shock to those who remember that one of Joe Biden’s first acts as president was to kill the Keystone XL pipeline. Biden’s decision received bipartisan criticism. Biden was even slammed by a union that had foolishly endorsed him in 2020 despite his longstanding opposition to the pipeline. In addition to killing the pipeline, Biden issued a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling leases, which, naturally, reduced supply and drove up prices. Under Trump, the United States produced over 13 million barrels of oil a day, and now we’re only producing 11.2 million.
“How can OPEC Plus be the reason for high energy prices when U.S. energy concerns are not producing as much oil as they did before the pandemic?” asks Phil Flynn at Fox Business. “To blame OPEC is very hypocritical of the administration because this is the same administration that has canceled the Keystone Pipeline, put drilling moratoriums on federal lands, and has discouraged investment in oil and gas production and pipelines at home.”
“Why doesn’t the Biden administration call on U.S. energy producers to raise output?” Flynn continues. “U.S. energy producers should be able to build back better. They are the cleanest and most efficient producers on the face of the earth and could create high-paying U.S. union jobs. The Biden administration outsourced our oil and gas production to foreign countries and now it is complaining that other countries are not doing enough to fill the void from the pullback from U.S. energy producers.”
We all know the reason why. Biden, who once claimed to oppose the radical Green New Deal, implemented Green New Deal policies via executive action during his first days in office. Biden’s campaign messaging on the Green New Deal was remarkably inconsistent. “The Green New Deal is not my plan,” he said during the September 29, 2020 debate with Trump. “I don’t support the Green New Deal.”
Except, according to his campaign website, he did support it.
Somehow, this contradiction was enough to assure the anti-Trump Republicans that Biden would be a middle-of-the-road president and enough to ensure the AOC/Bernie Sanders wing of the party that Biden would not be a middle-of-the-road president. Of course, Biden was always going to embrace the radical left-wing agenda of the party, and anyone who told themselves otherwise (read: Never Trumpers) was deluding themselves.
Make no mistake about it, Biden’s calling on OPEC+ to increase production is a ruse. OPEC isn’t to blame for high gas prices, Joe Biden is. He killed the Keystone pipeline. He embraced the Green New Deal. He issued the moratorium on drilling. He illegally got us back into the Paris Climate Agreement and promises to cut carbon emissions at an absurdly rapid pace. Joe Biden owns these high gas prices because he chose to be a puppet of the radical left. We were energy independent under Trump. Do you think what’s happening now is a mistake or by design?
Joe Biden won’t fix the problem the way he should. He’ll beg OPEC to increase supply abroad while pushing for “green” energy here. More windmills and solar panels that are, of course, taxpayer-subsidized, aren’t as efficient as oil and gas, and are not even very green, to be honest.
Meanwhile, gas prices will remain high, which will drive up the cost of goods further. We’ve seen this play out before. Remember the Obama years? Remember gasoline at nearly $4 per gal for over three years under Obama? That’s what we’re likely to get under Biden.
Don’t blame me, I vote for Trump.
