{"id":1674619,"date":"2022-10-05T16:53:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T20:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1674619"},"modified":"2022-10-05T16:53:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T20:53:47","slug":"turns-out-bidens-empowering-of-opec-was-a-really-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/turns-out-bidens-empowering-of-opec-was-a-really-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Turns Out Biden\u2019s Empowering Of OPEC Was A Really Bad Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fturns-out-bidens-empowering-of-opec-was-a-really-bad-idea%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1674619&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>If the average price of a gallon of gas falls by a penny, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain will take to Twitter and credit the Biden administration. In the last few months, due to lower demand and other factors, consumers have experienced a reprieve from historic highs. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre points out this is \u201cthe fastest decline in gas prices in over a decade,\u201d which is like bragging about losing a couple of pounds after packing on 20.<\/p>\n<p>Officials haven\u2019t had much to say lately. That trend is likely to continue. Today, the OPEC+ cartel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/10\/05\/oil-opec-imposes-deep-production-cuts-in-a-bid-to-shore-up-prices.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> it\u2019s going to cut production by 2 million barrels a day. This, even after the Biden administration engaged in a \u201cfull-scale pressure campaign,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexThomp\/status\/1577400712341950477\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to CNN, to dissuade our alleged allies in the Middle East to change their minds. As a presidential candidate, Biden called Saudi Arabia a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/02\/us\/politics\/biden-saudi-arabia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pariah<\/a>\u201d state. Soon after the election, like all his predecessors, Biden traveled to the Kingdom to kiss the ring. And still, he gets nothing. The oft-repeated claim that Biden is a savvy, highly respected foreign policy operator has been relentlessly debunked by reality. <\/p>\n<p>Biden wagered that he could placate his left wing, curbing fossil fuel production while also holding prices in check by pressuring the Saudis and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/bidens-america-is-running-on-empty-opec-strategic-petroleum-reserve-pipeline-fossil-fuel-saudi-arabia-11663881235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emptying<\/a> the U.S. strategic reserve, now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/rrapier\/2022\/09\/07\/the-strategic-petroleum-reserve-is-at-its-lowest-level-since-1984\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">at a 40-year low<\/a>. It was a bad bet.<\/p>\n<p>Biden can\u2019t <em>control<\/em> prices, but he could have mitigated the problem consumers now face had he not disincentivized domestic fossil fuel production and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energyindepth.org\/biden-administrations-latest-energy-blunder-refinery-capacity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">refinery capacity<\/a>. Remember that on Biden\u2019s first day at work, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/interactives\/2021\/interactive_biden-first-day-executive-orders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revoked<\/a> permits to build the Keystone XL, a 1,700-mile pipeline that was going to carry approximately 800,000 barrels of oil a day into the United States that is slated to be completed <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.api.org\/news-policy-and-issues\/blog\/2022\/03\/11\/misunderstood-keystone-xl-a-reminder-of-the-importance-of-critical-infrastructur#:~:text=Fact%3A%20The%20Keystone%20Pipeline%20System,operations%20starting%20in%20early%202023.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in a few months<\/a>.<\/em> Seems like the kind of infrastructure that might be quite helpful. Days later, Biden signed a batch of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/01\/27\/biden-suspends-oil-and-gas-drilling-in-series-of.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">executive orders<\/a>\u00a0halting any new oil and natural gas leases on all public lands. The administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/federal-oil-leases-slow-to-a-trickle-under-biden-11662230816\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">has issued<\/a> fewer oil leases than any president since the Second World War.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unsurprising, considering the stated policy goal of his party has been to create fossil-fuel scarcity by \u201ctransitioning\u201d \u2014 subsidizing, mandating, and diverting capital \u2014 to unreliable and expensive \u201cclean energy\u201d projects. The Democrats\u2019 promises and rhetoric are also baked into the price. Even if Biden loosened regulations today, why would nefarious profit-hungry shareholders of the oil industry plow billions into long-term projects when Democrats promise to destroy their business in the not very distant future?<\/p>\n<p>You can have windmills, or you can have affordable and reliable energy. You can\u2019t have both. <\/p>\n<p>Being a fungible commodity, no single group or nation or leader or project is going to dictate prices. And among the entities that aren\u2019t responsible for spiking prices is \u201cBig Oil,\u201d the bugaboo Biden and Democrats like to throw at the economic illiterates in times of crisis \u2014 but <em>only<\/em> when prices spike. Those poor bastards never get any credit for the years of stable, low prices.<\/p>\n<p>Today, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had the gall to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2022\/10\/05\/statement-from-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-and-nec-director-brian-deese\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">say<\/a> OPEC\u2019s cuts were \u201ca reminder of why it is so critical that the United States reduce its reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels.\u201d His point, of course, is that we must speed up the approximately $30-bazillion clean-energy agenda \u2014 which, even if we embraced completely this second, would do absolutely nothing to alleviate the pain felt by 98 percent of people with cars and homes.<\/p>\n<p>It is also true that Russia is a member of OPEC+. Whether our proxy war against Putin is worthwhile or moral, American leadership should have expected and planned for retaliation. Unlike Europe, North America had not yet surrendered its strategic energy advantage. Michael McFaul <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/McFaul\/status\/1577679819663212544\">says<\/a>, \u201cthis pivotal moment in history, Saudis side with Putin and against us.\u201d But if depressing production means we\u2019re siding with Putin, what does that say about a political party that is leading the charge to shut down pipelines, ban fracking, undercut exploration, and artificially undercut the availability of reliable and affordable energy?<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the average price of a gallon of gas falls by a penny, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain will take to Twitter and credit the Biden administration. In<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1674619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1674619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1674619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1674619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1674619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}