Rising gas prices, out-of-control inflation and out-of-touch politicians are just a few of the reasons our economy is in the state it’s in. One of the main reasons is President Joe Biden’s continued rhetoric of shutting down the industry. Last week, at a press conference, President Biden said that high gas prices were part of an “incredible transition” to become “less reliant on fossil fuels.”
Here’s three easy solutions leaders should be talking about.
- Carbon Cutting – The United States is the top producer of oil and natural gas, and is also a leader in cutting its carbon footprint, reducing emissions by 17 percent below its 2005 level—more than any other country. It is also important to note, the polarizing presidents have really created this mess. President Donald Trump wasn’t part of the Paris Climate Accord in 2017 and still reduced its carbon emissions by 0.5 percent that year. That was more than all major emission-producing countries who did sign the agreement. For our leadership on all sides of the aisle to allow this polarizing leadership to happen is near-criminal to the people of the United States.
- Economic Opportunity – Over the past 20+ years the United States has seen trillions of tax dollars given to corporations and the elite to create opportunity for the masses. The body of work is done and the only industry that showed a net job increase before COVID hit was the “Mining” industry. The mining industry is oil and gas, however, not all the contractors are oil and gas. The Crude Life is “Communications” or “Media”, many Hot Shot driving are “Transportation” and oilfield caterers are “Hospitality” or “Food Service”.
- Security – As I am typing this Op/Ed piece the country of Germany is admitting their ESG and energy mistakes. It turns out relying on another country can bite you in the Hefeweizen.
When Putin invaded Ukraine in February, Germany faced a particular problem. Its rejection of nuclear power and its transition away from coal meant that Germany had very few alternatives to Russian gas. Berlin has been forced to accept that it was a cataclysmic error to have made itself so dependent on Russian energy – whatever the motives behind it. The foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, says Germany failed to listen to the warnings from countries that had once suffered under Russia’s occupation, such as Poland and the Baltic states. For Norbert Röttgen, a former environment minister and member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union (CDU), the German government bowed to industry forces pressing for cheap gas “all too easily”, while “completely ignoring the geopolitical risks”.
In February this year, German Green economic affairs and climate action minister Robert Habeck said that gas storage facilities owned by Gazprom in Germany had been “systematically emptied” over the winter, to drive up prices and exert political pressure. It was a staggering admission of Russia’s power to disrupt energy supplies.
“I was wrong,” the former German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, says, simply. “We were all wrong.”
According to recent reports, 35-percent of energy consumption in the U.S. comes from oil, making the Strategic Petroleum Reserve critical to our national security. The SPR has been used in the past to offset major disruptions from events like Hurricane Katrina and wars in the Middle East, the SPR is now at its lowest level in 35 years due the Biden administration “transition”.
Bottom line. The oil and gas industry represents many American attributes and global quality of life realities. This fact makes it particularly curious why all our elected and appointed leaders are allowing this direction for our country. It’s almost like they are playing a game and really do not care how it turns out because they get paid by the government regardless and their “public-private” partnerships get funded in a “too big to fail” logic.
Sponsors, Music and Other Show Notes
Studio Sponsor: The Industrial Forest
The Industrial Forest is a network of environmentally minded and socially conscious businesses that are using industrial innovations to build a network of sustainable forests across the United States.
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Weekly Sponsor: Great American Mining Co
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