This week, after the White House issued a comment urging a group of 23 oil-producing nations, led largely by Saudi Arabia and Russia, to increase their oil production, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott sent an open letter denouncing the Biden White House’s moves to restrict oil production in the U.S. while begging abroad.
Abbott said via Twitter, “Dear White House: Texas has this. Our producers can easily make the oil if your team will just keep out of our way. Allow Americans—not OPEC—to produce the oil that can lower the price of gasoline. Don’t make us dependent on foreign energy.”
Dear White House:
Texas can do this.
Our producers can easily produce that oil if your Administration will just stay out of the way.
Allow American workers—not OPEC—produce the oil that can reduce the price of gasoline.
Don’t make us dependent on foreign sources of energy. https://t.co/2YVOArh3Gf
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 12, 2021
The White House’s comment by national security advisor Jake Sullivan said:
“Greater gasoline costs, if left to continue, risk damaging the global recovery. The price of oil has been higher than it was in 2019, before the pandemic started.”
“While OPEC+ recently accepted the idea of increasing production, these increases will not completely offset past production cuts that OPEC+ forced during the covid pandemic until 2022. At a crucial moment in the world’s recovery, this is not enough.”
As we have noted, Joe Biden has taken steps to harm the American oil industry:
“Among his first acts as president, Biden canceled a permit from the Keystone XL Pipeline which allowed a pipeline to go from Canada into the U.S. Biden’s action essentially killed the project, costing thousands of jobs. If successful, the pipeline would have brought over 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to Texas.”
In April, the Biden White House published its “Made In America” tax plan, in which it says its intent to replace “fossil fuel subsidies with clean energy incentives,” saying that, “tax provisions have shifted our energy production away from clean energy, harming our long-term energy independence and the battle against global warming.”
The WST explained, “The fossil-fuel provisions which are up for elimination are two tax deductions that lower the taxes for production and exploration companies. One is the intangible drilling deduction, which allows producers to remove most of the costs connected with finding and creating wells. The second is something called percentage over cost depletion, which also aids fossil fuel companies in lowering their taxable income.”
Author: Blake Ambrose