Regarding Mr. Reid Beveridge’s assertion that “the United States achieved energy independence as recently as four or five years ago, only to slip back to energy deficit as the result of President Joe Biden’s policies and decisions” begs the question of the source of this false information (“There’s more than one right answer regarding energy crisis,” June 22).
If truth be told, the United States has never stopped importing foreign oil, and uses more barrels of oil per day than it produces. Consequently, we need imports from abroad. Robert Kaufmann, a research professor with the Earth & Environment Department at Boston University, reported this information.
Kaufmann further advised that Americans consume about 20 million barrels of “oil products” daily that include gasoline used to run our vehicles. We produce about 18 million barrels of “crude oil” per day. The 2 million to 3 million barrels of refined oil a day that we import is much smaller than previous years under the Trump administration. Our prices for imports are set by the global market for crude oil. Even if we produced all the oil we needed, we would still pay the global market’s current set price. We also rely on their refineries due to our long-standing shortage of refineries. The good news is that the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected last month that U.S. crude oil production will be increasing production this year and next. Thank the Biden administration.
The Biden administration approved more drilling permits in its first year than the Trump administration approved yearly in its first three years.
In closing, the Biden administration is slowly transitioning to clean, renewable energy in its effort to reduce climate warming, while not losing sight of the need for continuing fossil fuel production needed for our various energy industries. In fact, many oil-production industries are cutting back on production instead of reinvesting in it to appease their shareholders’ demands for increased dividends and stock price gains.
Nonoil investors are paying at the gas pump for these oil investors’ excessive stock profits. Global supply chain breakdowns and labor shortages due to COVID-19, along with the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Venezuela and Russia, all add up to excessive inflation. Blaming Joe is “malarkey.”
Bill Clemens
Magnolia
