Destroying America’s Energy Advantage To ‘Save Democracy’

Engaging in cynically self-serving partisan behavior to win elections sounds profoundly corrupt. Engaging in cynically self-serving partisan destructive behavior to “save democracy” … well, that sounds profoundly rational. And so it goes.

“We find ourselves in a situation, where keeping gas prices low is key to preserving and strengthening the future of our democracy,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes admitted last night. “And so here we are. Hence, Biden releasing oil from the reserves today.”

There is no policy justification for emptying the emergency strategic oil reserve right now. Just as there is no reason to use emergency powers to force taxpayers to foot the bill for graduate student loans. Just as there is no foreign policy justification for threatening the Saudis to keep production high until the midterms when you keep undercutting domestic production and capacity.

The crass partisanship is even worse than Hayes lets on, since emptying the strategic reserve is a little more than political kabuki theater. The Energy Department is going to release 15 million barrels this week so that families will have some “breathing room,” says the president. But the United States uses nearly 20 million barrels every day. Fifteen million barrels might be useful in a national disaster — which we would be unprepared for right now — but in this environment, it does nothing but give Democrats “breathing room” to pretend they’re doing something.

“I have been doing everything in my power to reduce gas prices since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine caused these price hikes — these prices to spike and rattled international oil markets,” Biden said Wednesday. When Biden told a town hall audience in September 2019 that he would end all new drilling on federal lands, the national average for a gallon of gas was $2.56. That was more than two years before Putin invaded Ukraine. When Biden was inaugurated, long before the Russian invasion, the price of a gallon was $2.38. It was one cent higher when he signed an executive order pausing all new government leases on public lands — where nearly a quarter of American oil extraction takes place. Since then, Biden has handed out the fewest new leases for a president early in his administration since World War II.

Putin hadn’t invaded Ukraine the day Biden killed the Keystone pipeline, and with it 830,000 barrels per day – around 25 million a month —which was scheduled to open in only a few months. Nor had he invaded Ukraine when the Interior Department stopped pursuing drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. All these actions put us in a precarious position when the inevitable international event shook the market.

Biden can’t control prices, of course, but there are plenty of things he could do to mitigate the pain outside of incentivizing production. Instead of easing sanctions on the socialist kleptocracy in Venezuela, or begging authoritarian cartels to drill more until the midterms, Biden could repeal the Jones Act and lower costs. He won’t because Democrats need union cash.

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