Joe Biden pledges to wean fossil fuel off the pump

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Joe Biden pledges to wean fossil fuel off the pump

- President Joe Biden has pledged to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels, and never has that call been more urgent than now, with United Nations scientists warning of a point of no return.

The Biden administration called yet on Saudi Arabia and its allies to unleash more crude into global markets, stressing the importance of 'affordable energy. That doesn't mean the president has suddenly turned his back on clean energy, but he's facing the politically problematic reality that scores of voters won't put up with a steady rise in the cost of fuels.

The jarring contradiction highlights the challenges that politicians around the world face when negotiating with the oil governor in pushing for a transition away from oil, while also looking to keep prices under the load at pump. It also underscores how federal sanctions could force the administration to reduce some of its green ambitions, including new limits on oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and on existing open land that Biden promised on the campaign trail.

And as the administration tries to navigate the political hurdles of fighting climate change without burdening voters, it is stoking strong criticism after getting tough on fracking and oil pipelines at home.

The White House doubles back on favoring OPEC production while giving the middle finger to American energy jobs, American energy consumers, climate advantaged American production, said Scott Angelle, a Republican former lieutenant governor of Louisiana and secretary of natural resources.

Sonya Savage, the energy minister for Alberta, Canada, oil heartland, was even more blunt. She said pleading with OPEC after killing the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have shipped oil sands crude to U.S. refineries'smacks of hypocrisy.

The administration's appeal to OPEC came just two days after Monday's rallying calls to reduce emissions from fossil fuels amid 'unequivocal' warnings from the world's top climate scientists to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible. John Kerry, the U.S. special Presidential Envoy to climate change, urged global warming action.

Oil has risen more than 40% this year, and average gasoline prices at the pump have been above $3 a gallon since May. Consumer prices from June last month advanced 0.5% and 5.4% from one year ago, according to the Labor Department's data released Wednesday.

Also See, the OPEC Plea Is Directed At Anxious Drivers: Biden Denning's OPEC plea Is directed at anxious drivers.

After more than a decade of low inflation, rising prices steadily held across almost all parts of the U.S. economy, from housing to consumer goods, with supply chains shortages leaving some industries almost at breaking point. With rising oil prices, it will only make matters worse.

'President Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump, according to the White House in a statement. OPEC's current plan to reduce production slowly is simply not enough.

After massive growth since 2010, production from America's offshore oil fields and shale platforms plunged during 2020, removing more than an entire Gulf of Mexico's worth of output. It has since plateaued at around 11.3 million barrels as frackers focus on expanding profits from higher oil prices, rather than investing in expanding output. This has given OPEC greater pricing power in the global oil market.

While in no way as severe, runaway U.S. consumer prices and a presidential appeal to the Middle East to manage oil prices recalls inflationary crises of the 1970 s.

'The Biden administration is under enormous political pressure due to inflation, with galloping gasoline the most publicized and vexing, said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and former White House official.

As candidate, Joe Biden called for phasing out the nation's oil industry, saying the environmental costs were too great not to transition to renewable energy.

'The oil industry pollutes significantly, Trump said during an October 20 debate with Biden of his rival candidate. 'It has to be replaced with renewable energy over time.

Soon Biden seized on the remarks to warn swing state voters in energy producing states like Pennsylvania that a Biden presidency would cost jobs and quickly sought to downplay his on-stage comments.

'We’re not going to get rid of fossil fuels for a long time, he told reporters as he prepared to quit Nashville.

Encouraging other countries to withhold oil supply to push up pump prices isn't good climate policy and it would hurt consumers and the economy, said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a former energy and climate adviser to Obama administration.

I don't see anything inconsistent in expressing concern over the pace at which OPEC is pushing oil back to the market and pursuing strong climate policy for the long term, Bordoff said in an email.

Less than a year after his first term, Kevin Book is making sure that his administration won't alienate voters in the squeezed American middle class, despite his rhetoric on climate change, according to Biden, managing director of research firm ClearView Energy Partners.

It seems intended more for the overseas driver than the American producer, and it probably has more to do with November of 2022 than August of 2021, he said. Congressional margins are tight. The Biden agenda won't get very far if a GOP-controlled Congress can shut down the government.