Biden Keeps Leasing Locked Despite OPEC Uncertainty; Surging Imports From Russia

摘要

During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden said if he was elected he would "phase out fossil fuels." Mere hours after being sworn in, his administration began to make good on that promise, issuing executive and secretarial orders to curtail domestic production. Today, the United States is importing increasing volumes of oil from Russia while also finding itself once again in the position of asking the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to ramp up output. Only two years ago, the United States was the world's largest oil producer and even a net exporter. What happened? On his first day in office, President Biden revoked permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, preventing significant Canadian imports from reaching Gulf Coast refineries. The next day, the acting Interior Secretary reconfigured approval authority for oil and natural gas federal lands permitting so that decisions once up to career officials in the states were transferred to a handful of Washington political personnel.