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So Much for Biden's War on Energy [1]
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Date: 2023-12-15
In next year’s narrative leading up to next year’s election, I expect we are going to hear a lot from Republicans about President Biden’s “war on energy.” I encounter this every day, and I have to debunk it every day.
Although it is true that Biden hasn’t been especially cozy with the oil industry, the actual results may be counterintuitive. So, Republicans using their intuition about this are regularly wrong on this issue.
Sean Hannity tried to tell Gavin Newsom in a debate that Donald Trump had made us energy independent, and that Joe Biden has lost it. Newsom told Hannity to Google “5.94 quads”, which would probably land you on a Forbes article I wrote in May — U.S. Energy Independence Soars To Highest Level In Over 70 Years. In fact, under the definition Hannity is using, energy independence has grown since Biden took office. I explain how that conclusion is derived in the article.
Today, the U.S. reached another milestone. As of today, December 15th, the U.S. has produced more oil than in any other year in our history. I documented this in a Forbes article I published today: U.S. Producers Have Broken The Annual Oil Production Record.
I indicated earlier this week in a TikTok video that the record was imminent, and some of the responses from Republicans were hilarious. Outside of being called a “liar” and then a “damn liar”, one guy said he knows that’s not true because he works in the industry and that drilling has declined under Biden. I had to point out to him that on the day Biden took office, there were 378 rigs drilling for oil and gas. Today there are 626. So, he is certain about something that is simply false, while declaring that he has authoritative knowledge about this.
Finally, the U.S. is also on pace to set a natural gas production record this year. But natural gas production in only reported monthly, and a couple of months after the fact. So, we won’t have these numbers finalized until sometime in 2024. But as of September, we are running a little over 4% above last year’s natural gas production record.
Reality is that this year the U.S. will produce more energy in our history. That also applies to renewables, which probably won’t come as a surprise. But the fossil numbers are going to catch a lot of Republicans off guard next year when they try to use this as a talking point.
The fact is, if Joe Biden is waging war on the oil industry, he is losing. That’s going to be a problem for Republicans in 2024. (I understand that many will be unhappy about this growing fossil fuel production and consumption. I agree, but that’s a different discussion).
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