‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’: Oil Executive Details How Biden Is A Drag On The Industry

Canary CEO Dan Eberhart pinned low oil production on White House policies intended to accelerate a rapid pivot toward renewable energy.

The executive of the oilfield services company said during an interview with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo that regulations and idealism regarding the energy transition have decreased output and worsened inflationary pressures for households.

“The administration just keeps throwing wet blankets at the industry, death by a thousand cuts,” Eberhart remarked, noting that production has declined 10% since the Trump administration despite higher oil prices. “Why is that? Because the administration is not being helpful and not trying to increase supply, and it’s hurting consumers and they just don’t seem to care.”

Biden has emphasized green energy while leasing less federal land for oil and gas drilling than any administration since the end of World War II. Soon after his inauguration, Biden also discontinued expansions to the Keystone XL pipeline project. The administration began releasing 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a stock of emergency crude oil created to manage supply disruptions in energy markets, earlier this year.

“President Biden has canceled the offshore lease auctions,” Eberhart added. “He stopped fracking on federal land and the permitting process, which is really what’s important, not the leases, the permits are coming out of the administration much slower than they were out of the Trump administration.”

Democrats have contended that windfall profits in the fossil fuel sector are attributable to corporate price gouging rather than supply constraints. Some lawmakers in the state of California are attempting to introduce a price gouging penalty; member states of the European Union are likewise preparing to tax surplus oil and gas revenues.

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry remarked during a Thursday interview with The Washington Post that the energy transition is not occurring “fast enough,” claiming that policymakers can no longer “run around and do one bespoke deal here, another bespoke deal there.” Eberhart called the sentiment tone-deaf, particularly given current recessionary risks.

“I think what he said is preposterous,” he reacted. “I’d like to see economic growth six times faster, and I’d like to see construction projects happen 20 times faster. But, look, there’s a difference between politicians and business, and business can only produce so much. And we’ve got to move incrementally. We’ve got to get done what we can get done.”

The White House has also been the subject of criticism for soliciting higher oil output abroad while suppressing production domestically. The government of Saudi Arabia revealed the commander-in-chief requested that OPEC refrain from cutting oil production until after the midterm elections. More recently, he began easing sanctions on Venezuela so that Chevron, an American oil company, could resume production in the socialist nation.

“The government should really focus on helping America and helping America’s national security position and helping American consumers,” Eberhart said. “The Biden administration, they’re not looking to Texas and North Dakota for more oil. They’re looking to Venezuela, they’re looking to Saudi Arabia. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous being in the oil industry. It absolutely drives me crazy that they don’t look to Texas for more oil, to North Dakota for oil.”

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