Biden obstructs American oil production, then asks OPEC to pump more oil
Since assuming the office of the Presidency, Joe Biden has taken several actions to obstruct oil production in the United States, including a suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal lands and blocking oil sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). He also canceled the Keystone XL pipeline within hours of assuming office.
Now that gasoline prices are above $3 per gallon in many parts of the country, the Biden administration is calling upon Saudi Arabia, other OPEC members, and Russia to increase the amount of oil they are producing to keep oil prices in check.
For all the concerns about Russian collusion during the previous four years, the Biden administration doesn’t seem to have any problem restoring the rubles in the Russian treasury. The graph below shows oil and natural gas revenues as a percentage of Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and it shows that the Kremlin benefits when oil prices rise.
The biggest check on Russian global influence is the American oil industry. The graph below, from Our World in Data shows American oil production bottomed out in 2005, before the fracking revolution began to ignite in 2008.
By 2017, the USA was producing more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia, effectively removing OPEC and Russia’s ability to reduce the supply of oil on the global market to increase the price.
Biden’s pleas to OPEC to increase oil output is a continuation of his “America Last” mining policies. He seems perfectly content to import oil and other raw materials from countries that don’t like us while denying good-paying job opportunities to American workers.