There’s Only So Much Joe Biden Can Do To Kill Oil And Gas

Thank Goodness For That

One of the frequent boasts then-candidate Joe Biden made during his 2020 run for the presidency was that his administration would mount a frontal assault on the domestic oil and gas business, outlaw hydraulic fracturing and put policies in place that would assure the industry was out of business within a decade. The President and his energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, made a habit of repeating that gone-within-a-decade promise throughout 2021 and 2022 as they aggressively worked to cement their Green New Deal agenda into place.

Funny thing, though: A number of months have passed since we heard either Biden or Granholm repeat that pledge. In fact, I was unable to find a single instance of either making the statement in 2023 at all. Granholm had a prime opportunity to do that when she participated in a December 12 meeting of the National Petroleum Council, a DOE advisory committee made up largely of oil executives that serves at her pleasure. But rather than go there one more time, the Secretary talked about her belief that the industry has a “trust gap” with the public related to climate issues, and urged the executives to do more to rein in their emissions.

“People on both sides of this are not going to hold hands and sing Kumbaya,” Granholm said. “But I do think there is an opportunity for those represented in this room to continue to amplify what you all are doing in investing and curbing emissions.”

[Note: This story is also published at the Daily Caller]

This noticeable moderation in the administration’s anti-oil and gas rhetoric could be a tacit admission of defeat in its initial goals to do away with the prosperity-creating industry. The proof of that failure comes in the form of current data from DOE’s own Energy Information Administration noting that the US industry will finish 2023 by producing all-time record volumes of both oil and natural gas during the year. Mind you, these are not just records for the United States, but higher volumes than have ever been produced by any nation on earth in a single year. 

Oh.