Biden’s oil boom

By Prinz Magtulis, Nichola Groom, Jarrett Renshaw and Moira Warburton – Reuters

The counter-intuitive fossil fuel boom under Biden reflects an awkward truth for his supporters and detractors alike ahead of the November elections, proving that what happens in globally interconnected markets like oil and gas is often well outside the immediate control of the person in the White House.

In Biden’s case, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed oil and gas prices so high that many producers worldwide made record profits, not just those in the United States. The global economic recovery that followed the darkest days of the COVID pandemic also rapidly pumped up demand for fossil fuels.

The profits of the top five publicly traded oil companies, for example — BP, Shell, Exxon, Chevron, and TotalEnergies — amounted to $410 billion during the first three years of the Biden administration, a 100% increase over the first three years of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to data compiled by Reuters.

Jobs growth in U.S. fossil fuels also far outpaced that in the renewable energy industries Biden has been promoting to fight climate change, according to the data.

Trump, Biden’s Republican presidential challenger this November, nonetheless frequently uses Biden’s energy policy as a punchline at his campaign rallies, promising to “drill baby, drill” and restore America’s energy independence when he returns to the White House — even as the U.S. cements its position as a fossil fuel superpower.

Biden’s supporters, meanwhile, rarely, if ever, tout the lofty oil and gas performance, focusing instead on his push for a green economy through lucrative subsidy packages for solar, wind, electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies that have sparked new manufacturing projects across the country.

“If Trump were president, he would be talking about the great oil boom in the United States, the great energy independence and be taking credit for the relatively low gas prices,” said Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston.