The Patriot Post® · A Smoke-and-Mirrors Concession on Drilling
Joe Biden and his White House handlers really want you to think the drastically higher prices you’re paying for gasoline are Vladimir Putin’s fault. Just remember, however, that it wasn’t Putin who canceled the Keystone pipeline on January 20, 2021; it was Biden. It also wasn’t Putin who in January 2021 banned new drilling leases on federal land; it was Biden. In an attempt to appear to be “doing something” about high prices now, the Biden administration announced in a Good Friday afternoon news dump that sales for those drilling leases will resume. But there’s a big catch — a very limited amount of land is available, and royalties are going way up. Ah, inflation.
In a grudging statement about how distasteful this whole “drilling for oil” thing is, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland complained, “For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries above local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of Tribal Nations, and, moreover, other uses of our shared public lands.”
That antagonistic attitude toward American energy production is why the details of this news are terrible. Only after a federal judge ruled last June that Biden’s ban violated the Mineral Leasing Act did the Interior Department finally commence nine months of foot-dragging to eventually do the bare minimum to appear to be doing something. And Interior’s press release makes clear the administration is only going to pretend to do something. It says the 144,000 acres opened represent “an 80 percent reduction from the acreage originally nominated” by energy companies. And, for the first time since 1920, royalties will rise — from 12.5% to 18.75%. The administration laughably says that’s to “ensure fair return for the American taxpayer,” as if taxpayers have ever gotten a good return for anything government does, and as if oil companies won’t pass those royalty costs on to consumers at the pump.
Apparently, those “I did that” stickers will just keep coming.
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Drilling on federal land represents about 10% of U.S. production, yet the process for applying to drill on federal land is, to put it mildly, onerous. While it takes the state of Texas a few days to approve permits, the Biden administration averaged 182 days last year. And again, the only reason for Friday’s news release was last June’s court injunction, meaning there’s no incentive or intention to reduce the overhead associated with drilling on federal land.
Democrats love to dismiss drilling or pipelines as solutions to today’s high gas prices because it’ll take so long to get oil to the gas pump. But what they’ve done is, for decades, hamper the production process and then point to that slow process as “proof” that we can’t drill our way out of the current mess. Donald Trump proved just the opposite — unleashing American energy production could yield incredible results within a few months.
Candidate Joe Biden promised to end oil and gas drilling on federal land. He has worked toward that goal, denied responsibility for the resulting high gas prices, and pulled political stunts like Friday’s announcement and the release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to address prices his plummeting poll numbers. And his ecofascist climate allies still have the gall to complain that Biden is “in bed with the oil and gas industry.” It is precisely the opposite. Biden is crushing American fossil fuel production, and that is exactly why we’re all paying so much more to fill up our gas tanks.