On Thursday, The Western Journal posted an article about the Biden administration’s energy policy.
The article reports:
While oil prices rise due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration is delaying new federal oil and gas leases.
This comes in the midst of rising frustration from Americans over increasing gas prices. In the U.S., gas prices are averaging more than $3.50 per gallon, NPR reported. These are the highest averages seen since 2014.
The halt in federal oil and gas leases is Biden’s response to a court ruling that blocked the administration’s attempt to emphasize potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions when creating rules for polluting industries, the Associated Press reported.
I don’t claim to have inside information, but I can tell you what is going to happen next (actually, it’s already happening). President Biden will blame the rapidly rising gasoline prices on the war in Ukraine. While that is partially true, it does not take into account the fact that if America were still energy independent, the price of oil would not be as volatile as it is. Also, the amount of money coming into the U.S. Treasury due to the increased price of oil and increased American drilling would be helpful to the American economy. The President’s policy of limiting American oil production during a time of international uncertainty hurts all Americans.
The article concludes:
It’s predictable that Biden would want to halt domestic drilling on federal lands, since he promised to fight climate change and leasing federal lands for fossil fuel development would conflict with that policy.
“These fossil fuel projects are incompatible with Biden’s goal of avoiding 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and they need to be canceled, as Biden promised to do,” Taylor McKinnon from the Center for Biological Diversity said, the AP reported.
However, Biden is also fully aware of how the Russia-Ukraine crisis is hurting oil prices.
In the midst of a fluctuating oil market that is directly hurting American pockets, Biden is halting federal drilling leases, which hurts American energy independence and keeps our gas prices tied to international tensions.