{"id":2669797,"date":"2026-09-25T08:53:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignfive-things-america-must-do-to-rein-in-oil-prices\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:58:32","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignfive-things-america-must-do-to-rein-in-oil-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignfive-things-america-must-do-to-rein-in-oil-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Things America Must Do To Rein In Oil Prices"},"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\">20<\/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%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignfive-things-america-must-do-to-rein-in-oil-prices%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=2669797&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--><p>Teh article discusses how recent U.S. actions during the Iran conflict have severely disrupted global oil supply, including closing the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on Saudi pipelines, leading to record-high diesel prices and shortages. Despite thes crises, the U.S. has limited its response to stock releases and policy measures that temporarily stabilize prices without increasing actual supply. Simultaneously occurring, domestic oil production has only modestly increased, as drilling operations hesitate to expand due to uncertain market signals. Prior goverment interventions,like price controls in the 1970s,caused long-term shortages and high prices,but <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >allowing market mechanisms-notably higher prices-<\/a>to operate naturally has historically restored supply. The article advocates for five key policy changes: cease government attempts to lower prices, eliminate windfall taxes on oil companies, stop using strategic reserves for price management, streamline permitting processes, and ensure countries commit to U.S. energy purchases. Ultimately, the article emphasizes that high prices are the most effective way to end shortages and urges policymakers to allow market signals to guide oil supply recovery rather than artificially suppressing prices.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Since the United States went to war with Iran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crs-product\/R45281\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in late February<\/a>, the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/09\/14\/economy\/saudi-east-west-pipeline-shut-oil-market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Red Sea route has come under fire<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spa.gov.sa\/en\/N2674017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on Sept. 10 drones knocked out the Saudi pipeline<\/a> that carried millions of barrels a day around Hormuz. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/gasdiesel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Retail diesel just set an all-time record<\/a>. Washington has spent seven months managing the price instead of the shortage: <a href=\"https:\/\/energyfactbook.com\/strategic-petroleum-reserve\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the largest coordinated reserve release in history<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/6020986-administration-waives-shipping-rules\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shipping-law waivers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/08\/05\/jones-act-waiver-fuel-gas-costs-maritime-industry-iran-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a peace memorandum that didn\u2019t hold<\/a>, and public pressure on producers to cut what they charge. Each move took the price down for a few days. None of them added an additional barrel to the market. Along the way we starved the one mechanism that reliably ends a shortage: increasing supply.<\/p>\n<p>That mechanism isn\u2019t complicated. Supply gets tight. Prices rise. Higher prices make marginal wells economic, so capital commits to drilling programs, programs put rigs to work, and barrels arrive. The new supply pushes prices back down on its own, and the country restocks along the way. No governmental authority administers that. Thousands of drilling operators decide independently whether the number works, and that has bailed this country out of every supply shock in my lifetime. This year, this mechanism has barely been allowed to run.<\/p>\n<p>Look at what should be the strongest signal in a generation: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/supply\/weekly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American refineries have run near 97 percent of capacity for more than a month<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=WCSSTUS1&#038;f=W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Strategic Petroleum Reserve sits at 285 million barrels, the lowest since 1982<\/a>, back when we were still filling it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=WCESTUS1&#038;f=W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Add it to commercial stocks<\/a> and the country holds less crude than at any point in the weekly record going back to 1990. That is a screaming shortage.<\/p>\n<p>Now look at the response. <a href=\"https:\/\/boereport.com\/2026\/09\/18\/us-energy-firms-add-rigs-for-second-week-to-highest-since-may-2024-baker-hughes-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Over the past year, the country has added 34 oil rigs<\/a>. Thirty-four, against a war, a closed strait, and the thinnest crude position on record. People outside this business read that as greed or timidity. In reality, drilling operators are hesitating to add more oil rigs because they question whether the price will last long enough to justify the commitment.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody drills one well. An operator commits a program: rig contracts, completion crews, takeaway capacity and permits, ramped up over quarters and running well past the payback on any single well.<\/p>\n<p>Until this month, every rally was talked down inside a news cycle. A statement from the White House about a deal with Iran that then fell through. A release from a strategic oil reserve we could no longer afford to draw. <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/08\/05\/jones-act-waiver-fuel-gas-costs-maritime-industry-iran-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A president telling the largest producers they \u201cought to give some of that [profit] back<\/a>\u201d to consumers. The barrels behind Hormuz didn\u2019t move because somebody posted something. What actually happened is that the market signal died before any capital could commit to it, and the thing that would have fixed the shortage never got funded by public and private industry.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Prices Now<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>September has been a test of the alternative. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdd.org\/analysis\/2026\/09\/13\/saudi-arabia-closes-its-east-west-pipeline-after-attacks-from-iraq\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brent crude, an oil pricing indicator, broke above $100 when the Saudi pipeline went down, for the first time since May<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/boereport.com\/2026\/09\/18\/us-energy-firms-add-rigs-for-second-week-to-highest-since-may-2024-baker-hughes-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The rig count has risen two weeks running to its highest since May 2024<\/a>. It\u2019s the first stretch all year where operators are acting like they believe the price. It will stop the moment Washington decides the price is its problem to fix.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile the books are balancing a different way. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/supply\/weekly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Commercial crude inventories sit right at their five-year average<\/a>, largely because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=WCSSTUS1&#038;f=W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">130 million barrels have come out of the emergency reserve since February<\/a>. We moved oil from the savings account to the checking account and called it stability. The rest is coming out of consumption. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=68164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Retail diesel hit $6.29 a gallon last week<\/a>, the highest since the government began tracking it in 1994 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=EMD_EPD2D_PTE_NUS_DPG&#038;f=W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">up about 65 percent since the war began<\/a>, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/supply\/weekly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">diesel demand is running 3.3 percent below a year ago<\/a>. Diesel moves things rather than people, and that cost rides into everything it hauls. The market is clearing by making people poorer instead of by making more oil.<\/p>\n<p>Now, our reserve is at a 1982 level, and the wells that would have covered the gap were never drilled. A postponed correction doesn\u2019t get smaller. It compounds, and by the time it arrives, the price needed to bring capital in is far larger.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve run the experiment both ways. Federal price controls in the 1970s gave us long lines for gas. President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/node\/250417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jimmy Carter began phasing those controls out in 1979<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/federal-register\/codification\/executive-order\/12287.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ronald Reagan ended what was left of them<\/a> on his ninth day in office. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/ng\/hist\/e_ertrr0_xr0_nus_cm.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The U.S. rig count climbed to an all-time record above 4,500 by the end of 1981<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/pet_pri_rac2_dcu_nus_a.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the price of oil fell every year for the next five<\/a>. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=RWTC&#038;f=A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oil near $100 from 2011 to 2014<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/dnav\/pet\/hist\/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&#038;s=MCRFPUS2&#038;f=M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American producers added close to 4 million barrels a day<\/a>, and by early 2015 the price had been cut in half. Washington engineered neither outcome. It got out of the way.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Five Options<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Getting out of the way now means five things. First, the government should stop talking the price down. Boards don\u2019t commit capital to a price that\u2019s temporary by political choice.<\/p>\n<p>Second, take the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/warren-were-going-to-be-on-oil-companies-profit-margins-should-not-go-up\/\" title=\"Warren: &#039;We&#039;re Going to Be on&#039; ..., &#039;Profit Margins Should Not Go Up&#039;\">windfall profits tax<\/a> off the table. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/senate-bill\/4111\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act now in the Senate<\/a> would take half of every dollar the largest producers earn above last year\u2019s average oil price. We tried this in 1980. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everycrsreport.com\/reports\/RL33305.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Congressional Research Service found<\/a> that tax reduced domestic production, increased our dependence on imports, and netted about $38 billion, not the $175 billion projected, before Congress repealed it in 1988.<\/p>\n<p>Third, quit using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a price tool and publish a refill plan. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/articles\/doe-announces-repurchase-oil-strategic-petroleum-reserve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">After the 2022 drawdown, the Energy Department began buying oil for future delivery at fixed prices<\/a> so producers could invest knowing the price was locked. Do it again, at scale, for 2027 and 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, fix permitting. Permit decisions on federal land should take weeks, and pipeline approvals should survive a change of administration.<\/p>\n<p>Fifth, write energy purchases into every trade and security agreement. If a country wants access to the American market or the protection of the American military, it should commit to buying American oil and gas over the long term. <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/news\/nation-world\/trump-announces-landmark-trade-deal-with-eu-promises-750-billion-in-us-energy-purchase-tariffs-european-union-commission-president-ursula-von-der-leyen-trump-turnberry-resort-scotland-russia-japan-china-beijing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Last year the European Union pledged $750 billion in U.S. energy purchases over three years<\/a>. Make that the standard.<\/p>\n<p>High prices are unpleasant. They are also the only tool that reliably ends a shortage. Every time we make them go away without adding a single barrel, we choose a bigger problem later in exchange for a smaller one now. Let the market signal work. It\u2019s been doing this a lot longer than any of us have been arguing about it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Adam Butcher is president and cofounder of Basin Ventures, a Southlake, Texas, firm that provides accredited investors direct access to U.S. oil and gas assets through non-operated working interests. He is a second-generation oil man whose family has more than 45 years in the business.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US oil crisis worsens as strategic reserves dwindle, prices soar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4421,"featured_media":2669798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/41186909981_043454436a_k-e1790182187126.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[32544,36256,41872,86228],"class_list":["post-2669797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-gas-prices","tag-oil-market","tag-oil-prices","tag-usa-energy-policy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/41186909981_043454436a_k-e1790182187126.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669797","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\/4421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2669797"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669801,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669797\/revisions\/2669801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2669798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2669797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2669797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2669797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}