What a difference four years and a new president makes.
During the Biden presidency, when a barrel of oil soared to nearly $120 dollars a barrel, the left desperately looked overseas for blame. We all remember the silly #PutinsPriceHike campaign from the White House and congressional leaders as gas prices rose past five dollars with the midterm elections approaching.
After President Donald Trump’s bold decision to decapitate the Iranian terror regime, however, the left wasted no time pointing their collective finger at the commander-in-chief. Long gone are the days of unity during a time of war. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer screeched that “due to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice, gas prices have surged to their highest levels in years,” while the Democratic National Committee (DNC) declared that “the price of gas will continue to surge because of Trump’s war with Iran. Trump doesn’t care.”
Spare me the crocodile tears.
The same politicians that have done everything in their power to obliterate the industry responsible for producing gasoline have no leg to stand on.
On the campaign trail, Biden declared: “I want you to look in my eyes. I guarantee you, I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuel.” During a primary debate with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2020, Biden vowed “no more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.”
As president, Biden put the full force of the federal government toward achieving that goal. He declared climate change to be “an existential threat to our nation and to the world.” His administration issued fewer acres for oil-and-gas drilling offshore and on federal land than any other administration did since World War II.
It wasn’t just Biden, either. His Cabinet agencies were in on the game. At the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler forced companies into “climate reporting rules.”
At the Department of Interior, Deb Haaland cited “indigenous knowledge” into energy exploration. No one knows what that even means. Here’s a multi-trillion dollar industry employing 12 million people and representing nearly 10 percent of our GDP, trying to cooperate with the federal government, and getting hit with that zinger from the Interior Secretary. Like it is an episode of Veep.
At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Michael Regan created a new national office charged with administering “environmental justice.” What is environmental justice? As fabricated as indigenous knowledge.
Beyond the outright hostility, these decisions created uncertainty — something oil markets hate. So when Vladimir Putin started his war in Ukraine, yes, markets spiked. The energy industry was under a two-front siege: one in Europe, and one in the White House.
President Trump may not have ended the war in Ukraine just yet, but he stopped the one against our oil and gas producers almost overnight. He declared an energy emergency on day one. He named an “Energy Dominance Council” with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin — all serious individuals committed to their cause rather than a leftist ideology. Trump eliminated the EV mandate, rolled back sweeping regulations and re-embraced the importance of coal.
The certainty created the conditions for a barrel of oil to average $69 dollars during the first year of Trump’s presidency. In January, the markets stayed calm in the aftermath of the removal of Nicolas Maduro.
Now there’s uncertainty. What is the status of the Strait of Hormuz? When will Kuwait resume oil production? How bad is the damage from Iranian strikes on Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both U.S. allies? That unknown spooked markets.
Yet, as Secretary Wright put it, “the world is abundantly supplied with energy thanks to President Trump’s energy dominance agenda.”
Already this week, both U.S. crude and global benchmark Brent oil fell below $80 a barrel after nearly hitting $120 the night before, but don’t hold your breath for celebratory headlines from the mainstream media about “oil in bear territory after a historic day of losses.”
American energy dominance is built-in resilience. It afforded the United States the geopolitical leverage to knock out the world’s greatest state sponsor of terror, and the potential to re-shape the region and the world forever.
Just like sealing the southern border, re-establishing energy dominance didn’t require a set of sweeping policies or bills. It just took a new president.
Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF
