Biden’s message on energy a little tricky
Release from reserve weighed
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, speaking at a global climate summit three weeks ago, called the planet’s warming a “threat to human existence as we know it,” urging the world’s nations to slash the use of fossil fuels, and adding, “Action and solidarity, that’s what’s required.”
But facing soaring energy prices at home, Biden is now pushing to crank up the supply of affordable gas and oil for Americans. He is strongly weighing a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, pushing the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether gas companies are charging too much, and leading a global effort to press oil-producing countries to ramp up production.
Those moves — along with a government auction last Wednesday of oil drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico — are prompting warnings from environmental advocates that Biden’s push to lower energy prices is undercutting his lofty goals on climate, which he sees as a centerpiece of his legacy.
“There is a huge contradiction right now in their actions,” said Jean Su, who directs the Energy Justice Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to stop the oil rights auction. “It’s really all hands on deck right now for climate. … Right now is not the time for more oil and gas production.”
The president himself has acknowledged some measure of “irony” in his campaign for more production of fossil fuels — and lower prices that would let Americans burn more of them — as his administration has set a course for net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
Biden and his aides say that helping Americans who face an immediate threat from high fuel prices does not undermine his longer-term plans. Biden officials also contend that the short-term measures would not drastically increase emissions. And he, along with his boosters, point to a legislative agenda that includes historic investments in clean energy.
But the president’s immediate conundrum illustrates the challenge facing the U.S. and other countries trying to shift away from fossil fuels: The near-term needs of their economies and the pressures of domestic politics still require cheap oil and gas.
That dilemma was on full display at the White House Monday, when Biden announced he was nominating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for another term. In his remarks, Biden stressed that Fed policy should take note of climate change, but also noted that high energy prices are a concern, saying, “We know it’s tough for families to keep up with the rising cost of gasoline.”
Republicans have been relentlessly hammering Biden over gas prices, and Democrats inside and outside the White House fear that inflation could be a devastating factor in next year’s midterm elections.
Last Wednesday, as the president traveled to Michigan to promote his infrastructure plan, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., blasted out an email noting the high fuel costs in that state and accusing Biden of “kneecapping American energy production.”
Republican senators recently held a news conference to highlight the issue, with some of them accusing the White House of purposely stoking the jump in prices to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
“People for several weeks now have been dealing with the shock of what happens at the gas pump where, every time you go fill your car up with gas, you wonder if you’re going to set your own personal high that day: ‘Is this going to be more than I’ve ever paid for gas before in my life?’ ” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said.
Such attacks are likely to ramp up as winter weather increases the need for heating fuel.
But, while Republicans say Biden’s long-term policies, such as restricting new oil and gas leases, will raise costs, Biden’s recent actions suggest his immediate goal is the opposite.
“Politically, it’s easier to say ‘we’re going to make things cheaper for you’ than ‘we’re going to make things more expensive for you,’” said one senior White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal dynamics.
White House officials also note that gas prices are rising largely because the country is opening up after the pandemic and demand has increased faster than production.
Some signs suggest the immediate cost crunch is easing, but prices at the pump remain high for now. The average price of gas in the U.S. as of Monday was $3.41 per gallon, according to AAA. In some politically important states, the costs are even higher, with prices at $3.60 per gallon in Biden’s native Pennsylvania and nearly $4 in Nevada.
Biden opponents have slapped stickers on some gas pumps showing the president’s face and his hand gesturing to the total, along with the words, “I did that.”
Mark Brownstein, a senior vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund who is in frequent touch with the administration, said Biden’s push for more oil supply is “bad optics” but that he believes the moves are only temporary. The president’s commitment to electric vehicles, and to weaning U.S. transportation off fossil fuels more broadly, is far more important than any short-term jump in supply, Brownstein added.
“There’s the challenge over what we do over the next 3-6 months to try and tamp down some of the froth in the market that’s stressing the pocketbooks of American consumers,” he said. “And then there’s the more systemic solution to the problem.”
Biden’s Build Back Better package, which cleared the House Friday, but faces turbulence in the Senate, includes $20 billion in incentives to boost the use of electric vehicles. Emissions from cars, trucks and buses amount to about 30% of the country’s greenhouse gas output, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Biden’s plan also includes $7.5 billion to fund electric vehicle chargers across the country, a downpayment on Biden’s goal of 500,000 of them by 2030.