As the world grapples with the existential crisis of climate change, environmental activists want President Joe Biden to phase out the oil industry, and Republicans argue he’s already doing that. Meanwhile, the surprising reality is the United States is pumping oil at a blistering pace and is on track to produce more oil than any country has in history.
The United States is set to produce a global record of 13.3 million barrels per day of crude and condensate during the fourth quarter of this year, according to a report published Tuesday by S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Last month, weekly US oil production hit 13.2 million barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s just above the Donald Trump-era record of 13.1 million set in early 2020 just before the Covid-19 crisis sent output and prices crashing.
That’s been helping to keep a lid on crude and gasoline prices.
What should he be doing instead? If he somehow had the legal authority to make companies cut production in the US, gas prices would increase drastically, the price of everything made with oil or transported with oil (which is basically everything) would spike, and consumption wouldn’t even go down much.
What needs to happen is to have an alternative to oil first, and Biden’s infrastructure bill was a big step in that direction, at least compared to every other president before him.
Biden approved more drilling on public lands than Trump did. So how about not do that.
BP just decided to discover a newfound cautious streak about the red sea that, wouldn’t you just know it, caused the price of oil to go up. Oh darn.
Oh yeah, it’s great that this hasn’t happened fucking already. The price of fucking everything but an hour’s wages has gone up. Or in the language of centrist Biden supporters, “the economy is doing great!”