President Joe Biden has pledged to wean the U.S. off of fossil fuels, and never has that call been more urgent than now, with United Nations-backed scientists warning of a point of no return.
And yet, the Biden administration Wednesday called on Saudi Arabia and its allies to unleash more crude onto global markets, stressing the importance of “affordable energy.” That doesn’t mean the U.S. president has suddenly turned his back on clean energy, but he’s facing the political reality that scores of voters won’t put up with a steady rise in the cost of fuels.
The jarring contradiction highlights the challenges that politicians around the world face in pushing for a transition away from oil, while also seeking to keep a lid on prices at the pump. It also underscores how political barriers could force the administration to scale back some of its green ambitions, including new limits on oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal land that Biden promised on the campaign trail.
And as the administration tries to navigate the political hurdles of fighting climate change without burdening voters, it’s stoking strong criticism after getting tough on fracking and oil pipelines at home.
“The White House doubles down on favoring OPEC production while giving the middle finger to American energy jobs, American energy consumers, climate advantaged American production,” said Scott Angelle, a Republican former lieutenant governor of Louisiana and secretary of natural resources.
Sonya Savage, the energy minister of Alberta, Canada’s oil heartland, was even blunter. She said pleading with OPEC after killing the Keystone XL pipeline that would have shipped oil sands crude to U.S. refineries “smacks of hypocrisy.”
The administration’s appeal to OPEC came just two days after Monday’s rallying cries to shift away from fossil fuels amid “unequivocal” warnings from the world’s top climate scientists to eliminate carbon emissions as quickly as possible. John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy on climate, urged “aggressive climate action.”
A White House official stressed that the Biden administration remains firmly committed to achieving a net-zero economy by 2050 and decarbonizing the power sector by 2035. At the same time, Biden is seeking to ensure Americans have access to affordable energy, recognizing that higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the economic recovery.
Oil is up more than 40% this year, and average gasoline prices at the pump have been above $3 a gallon since May. U.S. consumer prices increased 0.5% last month from June and 5.4% from a year ago, according to Labor Department data released Wednesday.
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After more than a decade of low inflation, rising prices have steadily taken hold across almost all parts of the U.S. economy, from housing to consumer goods, with supply-chain shortages leaving some industries almost at breaking point. Higher oil prices inevitably make everything worse.
“President Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump,” the White House said in a statement. OPEC’s current plan to increase production slowly “is simply not enough.”