OPINION:
It has been quite a transition for America, from being the world’s self-sufficient No. 1 oil producer to begging horrible foreigners to pump more fossil fuels. But by God, President Biden did it. With ease. In a matter of months.
Being the “Anti-Trump” is child’s play. Begin your presidency by signing stuff that is the opposite of what Mr. Trump did, and the town loves you. And donors — those so-important-to-the-Democratic Party billionaires who want to run our lives — clap by flooding the left with cash.
Nothing brings dollars like going after oil, coal and natural gas.
The plain truth is that without fossil fuels — the great lifesavers of the 20th century when U.S. life expectancy went from 46 to 76 — everything stops. The ability to produce and move just about every product, from food to medicine, from light to heat, would break down.
But the new president grabbed a hammer on day one. It’s too much fun being the Anti-Trump.
On Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, Mr. Biden canceled the in-construction Keystone pipeline planned to gush 800,000 barrels a day over 1,700 miles from Alberta to the Texas Gulf. Keystone had to be sacrificed. It was the new “Katrina” of the heavily financed climate change movement.
The same executive order suspended all activity to pump oil from Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, better known as ANWR.
The next day the president suspended issuing new leases to drill for energy on public lands.
A climate-change triple play.
Imagine the pure giddiness inside the Oval Office. Mr. Biden evicted Orange Man. Gone were Donald Trump’s initiatives to create jobs and declare our energy independence from autocratic expansionist Russia and the volatile Middle East.
Mr. Biden wasn’t done. His Bureau of Land Management went to work to increase access fees paid by energy producers. BLM recommended in November that such royalties will, in fact, go up. By a lot.
When the president signals that the U.S. is rolling back its status under Mr. Trump as the world’s No. 1 oil producer, the markets listen.
The bid on crude oil shot up from $51 on Inauguration Day to $82 a barrel by October. Bad news on the coronavirus pandemic subsequently sent the price down to $66. At the pump, the average price per gallon of gasoline was $2.21 in November 2020, according to the American Automobile Association. Today: $3.40.
Next came inflation. Tame under Mr. Trump, the price of goods broke out at a rate not seen in decades. Economics 101: Higher fuel costs migrate to the price tag on just about everything.
The megarich don’t worry. Their man Mr. Biden is fighting the climate.
Let’s look at two of them.
Computer oligarch Bill Gates wants us to end global warming by giving up tasty steaks, replaced by pasty vegan fare and fake meat.
In 2020, people affiliated with his Bill and Melinda Foundation contributed over $1 million to candidates and Political Action Committees, the vast majority of whom were Mr. Biden and his Democratic colleagues, according to OpenSecrets.org. Democrats received over $900,000, including nearly $150,000 for the Biden campaign. Republicans just over $200,000.
The $1.14 million was far above what foundation affiliates gave in the last five elections. 2016, Donald Trump’s year, checked in at just $184,281.
Another super-wealthy global warming fighter is Michael Bloomberg.
The former Democratic presidential candidate oversees a news and data business empire that contributes mightily to Democrats and other left-wing causes.
He and his affiliates contributed nearly $160 million in the 2020 election cycle, almost all to the left, according to OpenSecrets.Org.
Mr. Bloomberg’s super PAC, Independence USA, is funded by his news media/data company Bloomberg LP. The PAC spent over $56 million for 2020 — $54 million to help Mr. Biden and $2 million to target Mr. Trump.
While the White House did not openly embrace gasoline price spikes, nor did Press Secretary Jen Psaki commiserate with budget-crunched middle-class families.
“Our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and our focus on clean energy options, so we are not relying on the fluctuations and OPEC and their willingness to put more supply and meet the demand in the market,” she told reporters on Nov. 12.
But reality was also invading the White House as Mr. Biden’s approval rating dove under the 40-point mark.
The White House themes are bash “price gouging” by oil companies while also begging the 15 nations of OPEC to pump more oil.
That embarrassing flip means that in just 10 months, an American president who inherited an energy-rich nation has a hat-in-hand to brutal Iran and communist Venezuela. And they humiliated him by saying “No.”
“If you take a look at gas prices and you take a look at oil prices, that is a consequence of thus far the refusal of Russia or the OPEC nations to pump more oil,” Mr. Biden complained.
In panic mode, the Biden team next asked China to release its oil reserves, CNBC reported.
In full panic mode, Mr. Biden ordered our strategic reserve to release 50 million barrels.
And to think, it was so much fun back in January cutting Mr. Trump and oilmen down to size.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
