OPINION:
President Biden misled the American public this week when he compared domestic oil production in the first year of his presidency to the production during former President Donald Trump’s first year. When Mr. Trump took over, it was after eight years of Obama-led domestic reduction in oil production. Why didn’t Mr. Biden compare his first year to Mr. Trump’s second, third or fourth years? Those saw substantially more production, with year four far exceeding what we are buying from Russia today.
Even members of Congress and the press have called for the U.S. to increase its domestic oil production as a means of stabilizing gas prices, but the Biden administration refuses, and we watch gas prices skyrocket.
The White House’s Jen Psaki said Monday: “There are 9,000 approved drilling permits that are not being used. So the suggestion that we are not allowing companies to drill is inaccurate.” As Mr. Biden and Ms. Psaki both know, many of these permits are for areas in which it is cost-prohibitive to drill. How about the areas of the country where oil was being drilled and the president, on day one, signed an executive order to cancel them? End that executive order and watch the oil flow. It’s not rocket science.
And then there is Germany, the biggest buyer of Russian crude oil, which has rejected plans to ban energy imports. Germany has caused its own headache by having caved to environmentalists and gone “green.” But don’t worry — Mr. Biden has a plan going to make deals with Iran (you remember Iran, the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism) and Venezuela (that fun-loving anti-democracy state in South America).
MARK P. CERNAK SR.
Chesapeake, Virginia
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