AS I SEE IT
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
Not too long ago, the United States achieved its goal of being energy efficient. Not only was this country producing enough oil to meet the bulk of its energy needs, but the United States was able to sell oil around the world.
That turnaround in America’s reliance on foreign oil to meet its domestic needs was credited to policy changes made by then President Donald Trump.
But those policies were quickly reversed when Joe Biden became president and his administration took a very dim view of the United States’ oil industry by curtailing pipeline projects and imposing new regulations that hampered the development of the nation’s oil and natural gas reserves.
Because of those policy decisions, it didn’t take long for oil production in the United States to fall. And not surprisingly, Americans started to see fuel prices climb to levels that they had not seen in years.
One would think that with the increasing demand for more oil not only in the United States and in the world, that Biden would turn to U.S. oil companies to increase production to help offset the higher fuel prices. But instead of turning to American suppliers, Biden did just the opposite in turning to OPEC, the same foreign cartel that had held the world hostage to its oil prices.