Bill Straub: Railing and blaming, playing bait-and-switch, Republican game puts foot on the gas

“Gas is now averaging over $4 per gallon across Kentucky,” Guthrie noted on Twitter. “I’m calling on the Biden Administration to unleash American energy after they have been weakening our energy independence since day 1. We need to be energy independent and NOT depend on our adversaries for our energy needs.”

Guthrie, of course, voted on Wednesday for the ban, which will ultimately lead to higher at-the-pump costs, on top of the already inflated prices.

And he’s not alone. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, who has, for some reason, decided to emerge as a face man for the Trumpian division of the party, followed suit noting what every American already knows – the price to fill your tank isn’t so much creeping up as soaring.

“Since President Biden took office, Americans have seen energy prices spike almost 40%,” Barr tweeted. “This week, gas prices hit an all-time high and were pushing nearly $4 per gallon even before the Russian invasion. It’s time to unleash American energy producers to lower prices at home, decrease European dependence on Russian energy abroad and stop the flow of hard currency into Russia which is financing Putin’s war machine.”

Barr, too, voted to end Russian oil imports, which amounted to about 672,000 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products per day in 2021, about 8 percent of all U.S. oil imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Gas prices were rising even before the Russia invasion of Ukraine. The inevitable decision to impose sanctions against The Bear, including an embargo on oil, a commodity that undergirds that gigantic nation’s economy, can only send those costs higher.

Turning off the Russian oil tap naturally raises questions about how the U.S. could compensate for the loss. Imports are necessary because the U.S. consumes about two-to-three million more barrels per day in petroleum products than it produces – a historic low but a shortfall nonetheless. So the Republican solution, to quote that great American who could allegedly see Russia from her state, former Alaska Governor and one-time GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is, as usual, “drill baby drill,” featuring a derrick in every backyard and a broad form deed to let energy companies take whatever they want wherever they want.

Republicans maintain Biden administration policies have limited oil exploration and drilling, leading to shortages in a time of need. Demand is greater than supply, resulting in higher prices and the Russian embargo can only exacerbate the situation, which directly leads to inflation.

The average price per gallon at the pump was $3.517 in February, up more than a dollar over the price in February 2021 of $2.501. That has since jumped to $4.17 per gallon and is probably still headed upward.

Republicans insist the problem has to be Biden. There’s just no other answer.

“We must also recognize that the past year of bad policies from this anti-domestic-energy administration will make this necessary step more painful than it had to be,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville. “Democrats must let Americans produce American energy.”

Biden and, it’s fair to say, most congressional Democrats maintain that the U.S., and the world for that matter, must ween itself off fossil fuels to ensure the planet’s survival. To meet that goal, the administration has taken some steps to ease the nation’s reliance on oil which, indisputably despite the protestations of the “drill baby drill” crowd, is responsible for global climate change.

In addition to proposing tougher environmental standards, the Biden administration has halted any additions to oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. The president famously canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and suspended oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and parts of New Mexico.

But, despite GOP claims, a review of the record shows Biden’s actions have had little or no impact on gas prices.

Let’s knock off the easy one off first.

The Keystone XL pipeline never really existed and wouldn’t have been operational to this point even if Biden hadn’t pulled the plug almost immediately upon assuming office.

The pipeline was designed to transport per day about 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil – some of the muckiest stuff on the planet – from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Under the best of circumstances the pipeline, a potential environmental disaster, was still a couple of years down the road. It couldn’t have any impact on the current situation.

So much for that.

Now, it’s important to note that, despite the wringing of hands in Republican circles, the United States is the largest producer of crude oil in the world and has been since the middle of 2018. The country, according to Forbes magazine, remains essentially energy independent despite accepting imports.

As a matter of fact, America is responsible for 20 percent of the world’s total oil, producing 18.6 million barrels a day. The next closest? Saudi Arabia at 10.8 million.

(As a side note, as a result of fracking the U.S. is producing more natural gas than it can use and is now sending liquified natural gas to various parts of the world to compensate for the Russia embargo).

Regardless, increases in the pump price for a gallon of gas preceded Biden’s assumption of office. According to the U.S. Energy Administration, the price went from $2.082 in June 2020 to $2.334 in January 2021 — the month former President Donald J. Trump put his tail between his legs and split. It has obviously risen much more starkly since then but not because of Biden who found himself caught in a trend.

The reason for the price explosion, as it is for most of the woes currently experienced throughout the land, is COVID-19. Demand dropped sharply as a result of the pandemic, folks stopped taking car trips and commuting to work. Oil prices fell accordingly – with the benchmark price of crude oil, as set on the international market, falling to an incredible minus $37.63 per barrel in April 2020. As economics demand, output thereupon decreased.

Now that the pandemic has – hopefully – ebbed, demand is up but supply has not kept pace. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has decided to maintain low production rates, probably to put more money in their pockets. In the U.S., production remains down as investors take a wait-and-see attitude.

United States oil production hit an all-time high of 12,966,000 in November 2019, before the pandemic. By February 2021, production dropped drastically, to 9,773,000 barrels per day. Since then, it has risen a bit and leveled off. By December 2021 it had hit 11,567,000.

The Center for American Progress reports that “domestic  oil production is at 90 percent of America’s all-time, pre-pandemic high, and the United States is producing more than twice as many barrels of oil per day as it produced in 2008.”
 
And it’s not like oil companies don’t have opportunities for additional oil exploration and drilling. Despite the decision to halt providing new leases, there are more than 9,000 federally approved drilling permits available on federal lands, meaning oil companies can start digging whenever the mood strikes.

“Nearly 5,000 of those permits were approved in 2021 alone — the highest figure since the second Bush administration,” the Center reported. “The number of permits already approved is about six times the average number of wells drilled annually in the past five years.”

There exists almost 14 million acres onshore and more than 9 million acres offshore under lease that oil companies are not using.

It could be oil companies are holding back to recoup some of their pandemic era losses and might soon rev things back up. The administration is trying to gig them up a bit, with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, speaking before the National Petroleum Council in December 2021, advising them to take advantage of the leases that you have, hire workers, get your rig count up.”

Even if domestic production hits astronomic levels unseen before, there’s no guarantee gas prices drop. The price of crude oil is set on the global, not the domestic market, with little wiggle room. Therefore, if oil producers can make more money selling on the global market than they potentially could stateside, guess where their product is headed.

Guys like Guthrie, Barr, and McConnell have no interest in getting behind a president of the opposing party during a worldwide crisis sparked by Russia invading a smaller country for no reason. There’s a political advantage to be had and damn the consequences.

They should be so proud.