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 serve 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.”
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 the 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.
Not that Granholm and fellow cabinet member Deb Haaland, the lifelong anti-oil and gas activist whom Biden appointed as his interior secretary, haven’t been trying. While Granholm’s Energy Department has invested absurd amounts of time and taxpayer money on efforts to ban gas stoves and other natural gas appliances, Haaland and her staff have spent an amazing amount of their own time and energy devising excuses for refusing to hold federal lease sales and issue permits for energy development on federal lands and waters in a timely fashion.
Efforts at those two departments have been complemented by EPA Administrator Michael Regan and his staff at the EPA, who have worked overtime to target the oil, gas, and coal industries with an array of emissions and other regulations designed to drive up costs and delay projects for precious little environmental benefit. At the same time, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has also worked to delay and obstruct the building of much-needed new interstate pipelines over which it has permitting authority.
Despite this multi-pronged regulatory and permitting assault on its ability to get its business done, the domestic industry managed to not only keep growing and meeting consumer demand but to set new production records. It’s quite an amazing achievement.
What it all shows is just how limited any president’s or congress’ power really is to override the fundamental workings of the free market. U.S. consumers demand oil and natural gas because they and their related products are so interwoven into the fabric of modern society and prosperity. Try as Biden officials might to force a transition to hand-picked rent-seeking industries like wind, solar, and electric vehicles, the markets will always make the final determinations related to which products and energy sources succeed or fail.
Until Biden and his fellow Democrat central planners find a way to basically destroy America’s free market system and replace it with one featuring EU-style authoritarian command and control, their efforts to put America’s oil and gas industry out of business will always be doomed to fail.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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