Marc Abear: Oil demand not reduced by decreasing production

To The Daily Sun,

The Biden White House says it is doing nothing to discourage oil companies from opening new drill sites. That’s not true. The president's allies in Congress pressured oil executives to decrease outputs. His party’s claim of a “strategy” to lower prices for consumers is insincere political posturing.

Last October the House Oversight Committee called in the chief executive officers of Exxon, BP, Shell, and Chevron. They were asked what steps they are taking to produce less oil and gas. A Democrat member of the committee insisted, "the world can't wait" any longer. At the time, gas prices were near a 10-year high.

The hearing adds clarity to the intentions of the parties. Gas shortage and political instability are pushing prices to all time highs. Price increases are being accelerated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The overdue Biden announcement, the United States will no longer import Russian oil, will not slow the price rise.

The Democrats are scrambling for a solution. It’s not that they care about the people their policies are harming. Rather, their polling indicates they are in trouble going into the November midterms. The result of Democrat policies is to harm the electorate by lowering the standard of living of every American.

The president lied on Tuesday in asserting his policies are not "holding back domestic energy production..." His press secretary says, "...federal policies are not limiting the supplies of oil and gas..." The administration observes there are thousands of unused pre-approved oil and gas drilling leases.

This is intentionally disingenuous. They knew or should have known the leases are for exploration. Most leases do not become productive in becoming new drilling sites. The number of leases available has been reduced by about two thirds in the last year.

Anyone watching what’s going on can see, there is a direct line from how the Democrats trashed energy production, to the unprecedented pain Americans are feeling at the pump. Democrats are demanding domestic oil companies dramatically curtail domestic operations and screaming about prices skyrocketing.

The Democrats’ intention is to have oil and gas production decline every year. They are driving price increases intentionally then hiding behind Vladimir Putin. We are making major structural changes to our economy without caring about the harm it causes. The economic problems occurring were avoidable if you actually cared about people.

We do not reduce hydrocarbon demand by decreasing production. Economies don’t work that way. Accepting the Democrat premise is just simply ignorant. Arbitrarily choosing a date of 2050 for American net zero carbon emissions is unrealistic, harmful and dangerous.

Today Democrats are trying to strangle the life out of fossil fuel companies. Simultaneously they are feigning surprise and trying to evade responsibility for the results of their policies. Truth be told their goal is to lower every American’s standard of living.

We should develop the replacement energy capacity before we end production of fossil fuel. That would be responsible behavior. Democrats say the rising prices are from forces outside the administration's control. That is clearly not true. The administration’s policies set us up.

Marc Abear

Meredith