Red state governors disparage Biden-era policies
The Republican governors of Wyoming and Oklahoma called for more common-sense energy policy at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston Wednesday, where hundreds gathered for an oil and gas conference.
Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming and Gov. J. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma addressed the North American Prospect Expo, a gathering known for facilitating the buying and selling oil and gas land, which this week is marking its 30th year. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had planned to participate in the governors’ panel but was waylaid by a winter storm affecting much of the state.
Stitt and Gordon took turns decrying the Biden administration’s withdrawals from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, its reluctance to hold lease sales needed to produce oil on federal land and blue state policies such as California’s impending ban on gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. They also took aim at shifting policies surrounding air and water pollution.
There’s a reason more people are moving to Republican-led states, Stitt said — they are places where governments let the free market rule and where “the American dream is alive.” He said he is trying to convince Biden to take a more “all-of-theabove” approach to the energy transition.
During a recent winter storm, he said wind turbines in his state began to fail and coal power plants had to step up to shoulder more of the load. “I was telling President Biden this, and I tell young people ... if we wouldn’t have had coal in Oklahoma, you wouldn’t have been able to watch TikTok for two solid weeks.”
A more business-minded approach needs to take hold, he said, or inflation will not improve.
“What is very simple for most of us,” he said, “is that when you choke off supply but demand is the same, prices are gonna go
up.”
Biden had taken steps last year to mitigate rising prices by releasing oil from federal reserves — a move Gordon said was “really dumb,” given the threat posed by foreign dictators such as Vladimir Putin.
Another way to ease prices would be to encourage supply, but the governors said that is not happening in their states. That weighs not just on oil companies but on coffers in their key oil-producing states.
“Through the four years of the (President Donald) Trump administration, we had 15 lease sales during that time,” Gordon said. “In the two years of the Biden administration, we’ve had one,” he said, noting “our lease sale bonuses have been down dramatically.”