How Biden's Calls on OPEC+ to Produce More Oil Managed At Long Last to 'Unify' Dems and GOP
19:13 GMT 18.08.2021 (Updated: 14:20 GMT 15.11.2022)
© REUTERS / EVELYN HOCKSTEIN
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Joe Biden's calls for stepping up oil output appear to have raised OPEC+ members' eyebrows, as the alliance has already started to gradually increase production starting in August 2021. Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans have accused the president of hypocrisy.
President Biden has come under heavy criticism from both sides of the aisle after he urged oil-producing countries last week to extract more crude as gasoline prices in the US continue to soar, the Hill reported on Wednesday.
Progressive Democrats and climate change activists have lashed out at the US president for seemingly betraying his "green" agenda and encouraging fossil fuel production.
"The way to give people relief from gas prices is not to expand oil production, because that will extend the life of a dying industry and it will maximise damage to our climate and to people’s lives and to their livelihoods," argued Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, as quoted by The Hill.
At the same time, Republicans and conservative observers insist that soaring gasoline prices are the direct result of Biden's domestic policies, including shutting down the Keystone pipeline project.
"Are you paying attention yet?" tweeted American journalist Jack Posobiec. "Biden asks Saudi Arabia and OPEC to produce MORE oil as inflation sends gas prices soaring - after he shut down America's Keystone pipeline."
Last week Joe Biden was begging OPEC for oil and now he’s begging the Taliban to allow access to an airport so we can bring Americans home.
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) August 17, 2021
Simply incredible how far Biden’s America has fallen in just 7 months. Unmitigated disaster.
In some sense, President Biden has indeed become a "uniter" as "he’s uniting conservatives and progressives who are all pointing out that his energy strategy is incredibly anti-American and foolish," House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (La.) told reporters on 17 August.
"The progressives see the hypocrisy in President Biden’s action just like we do," Scalise (La.) stressed.
On 16 August, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and 22 other Republican senators called upon the president to reverse his decision to request assistance from the international oil cartel and reinvigorate the country's energy sector.
"Since your first day in office, your Administration has pursued policies that have restricted and threatened American oil and gas development, which has had devastating consequences for American workers and consumers," the GOP senators wrote. "It is astonishing that your Administration is now seeking assistance from an international oil cartel when America has sufficient domestic supply and reserves to increase output which would reduce gasoline prices."
Earlier on 11 August, the Biden administration urged the 13-member Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its OPEC+ partners, which include other major oil producers such as Russia, to reverse crude cuts. OPEC+ struck a historic deal to reduce output in November 2016 and since then has maintained production restraints in a bid to stabilise plummeting oil prices.
"We… made clear to OPEC, the major oil exporting nations of the world, that the production cuts made during the pandemic should be reversed as the global economy recovers in order to lower prices for consumers," the US president said last Wednesday while delivering remarks on his 'Build Back Better' agenda.
FULL STATEMENT: The White House urges OPEC+ to pump more oil (above and beyond the current 400,000 b/d monthly hikes the cartel is already implementing) | #OOTT pic.twitter.com/qnWA1l7Pnt
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) August 11, 2021
However, it appears that Biden has failed to "rein in" hydrocarbon producers, unlike his predecessor, whose "mean tweets" appeared to "regulate" oil prices, according to S&P Global Platts' 2019 chart.
Joe Biden asked OPEC to produce more oil.
— Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) August 18, 2021
OPEC declined.
This is why American energy independence is so important.
Four sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters on 16 August that OPEC+ believes that the global market does not need more petroleum, especially given that the alliance has already started stepping up production. In July 2021, oil-producing countries agreed to gradually boost extraction by 400,000 barrels per day a month starting in August until its current oil output reductions of 5.8 million bpd are fully phased out. One of the four sources told Reuters that there are no concerns that the planned schedule of increases could leave any demand unmet.
