The Biden administration reiterated its opposition this week to expanding U.S. fossil fuel production, rejecting the argument from Republicans that backing increased domestic production would lessen reliance on Russia and lower gas prices.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki rebuffed calls for the administration to back expanded drilling for oil and gas or to reverse its cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, as suggested by Republicans.
Instead, Psaki said on ABC News’s This Week, the crisis in Russia further underscores the necessity of President Joe Biden’s plans to increase clean energy production in the United States.
“The Keystone Pipeline was not processing oil through the system,” Psaki said. “That does not solve any problems. That’s a misdiagnosis — or maybe a misdiagnosis of what needs to happen.”
“I would also note that on oil leases, what this actually justifies in President Biden’s view is the fact that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general … and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others,” Psaki added.
Her remarks came in response to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, who said on the same program that the lifting of such restrictions “would bring more oil into America every day from Canada than we import every day from Russia.”
But Cotton is not the only Republican calling on the White House to step up its domestic energy production.
Congressional Republicans and former administration officials have made the case that Moscow’s aggression further illustrates the necessity for the U.S. to cut ties with and lessen dependence on Russia, the third-largest exporter of petroleum products to the U.S., as of November, and the European Union’s top supplier of natural gas.
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Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida on Thursday, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley blasted Biden’s decisions in the energy sector, saying his push for clean energy initiatives strengthened Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand.
“You talk about weakness on the part of Joe Biden,” Hawley said. “He comes to office, and what does he do? He shuts down American energy production and greenlights Russian energy production. Is it any wonder that Vladimir Putin feels emboldened to do whatever he wants to do?”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed the claim. “We did the worst thing: We shut down American natural gas and crude oil production, giving Vladimir Putin 100 bucks a barrel or 93 bucks a barrel for the crude oil that’s produced in Russia,” he said.
And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell weighed in separately, writing that the U.S. must “get serious about energy independence” in the wake of the Russian invasion.
The Biden administration has toed a delicate line in responding to rising energy prices, crafting sanctions meant to punish Putin but exclude the Russian energy sector in an effort to limit the pain many U.S. consumers are feeling at the pump. “Our sanctions package we specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue,” Biden said last week in announcing the measures at the White House.
Gas prices in the U.S. have been on the rise for months, reaching a national average of $3.57 a gallon, according to AAA. That’s a roughly 33% increase from the same point last year.
The national consumer price index for gas has also increased by 40% since January 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite the administration’s decision to release a record 50 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserves in November.
Biden has repeatedly suggested that oil and gas companies are to blame for high prices and even called for a Federal Trade Commission investigation into the possibility that they are price gouging.
Last week, he echoed the same theme, saying, “American oil and gas companies should not — should not exploit this moment to hike their prices to raise profits.”
With the Biden administration’s backing, though, the U.S. has also massively ramped up its shipping of liquefied natural gas to European allies in hopes of blunting any damage caused by Russian disruption.
LNG producers in the U.S. have been operating at peak capacity for the last two months, and exported volumes averaged some 11.2 billion cubic feet per day in January — a more than 7.5% increase from the daily average for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, some Republicans have called on Biden to expand sanctions to Russia’s energy sector as a means of increasing the pressure on Putin. Last week, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey said he fears the announced measures “will be inadequate to deter Putin from further aggression.”
“The administration is intentionally leaving the biggest industry in Russia’s economy virtually untouched,” said Toomey.
“The sanctions imposed on Russian banks, while welcome, may not isolate the Russian financial system from international activity. That’s why the U.S. should impose crippling sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector,” he added.
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Asked Sunday whether Biden would be open to lifting such restrictions on U.S. production, Psaki demurred, saying only that Biden hopes to use “carefully crafted sanctions” that “maximize the impact” and consequences for Putin while “minimizing the impact” on Americans and the rest of the world.
