Biden’s Anti-Drilling Policies Have Cut Oil Supplies as Much as the OPEC+ Decision, Study Reveals

President Joe Biden’s anti-drilling policies have cost the United States about the same rate of daily oil production that was recently slashed off world markets by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

“The United States would be producing between 2 and 3 million more barrels of oil a day and between 20 and 25 more billion cubic feet of natural gas under the Trump policies,” said a recent study (pdf) by the organization Committee to Unleash Prosperity. “This translates into an economic loss—or tax on the American economy—of roughly $100 billion a year.”

OPEC, which includes major producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, announced it was reducing oil production by 2 million barrels per day, in a move seen as a setback for Biden. The U.S. president had visited Saudi Arabia in July to push the kingdom into increasing production amid historically high U.S. gas prices.

Following the decision, Biden announced the release of 10 million more barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in a bid to contain the uptick of oil prices. Price for Brent crude oil has gone up by more than 3 percent since the OPEC reduction news on Oct. 5, from $93.34 at 8:30 EDT, to $96.15, as of Oct. 7, 9:52 a.m.

“The president will continue to direct [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] releases as appropriate to protect American consumers and promote energy security,” according to a statement by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese.

Draining Strategic Reserves

The analysis by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity found that the “United States would not have had to sell a single barrel of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if the Trump drilling policies had remained in place.”

The amount of oil production “lost because

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