President Joe Biden, 80, lashed out at U.S. and global oil companies for gouging consumers, making record profits at a time of shortage and skyrocketing prices. Biden takes no responsibility for the ongoing Ukraine War and Russian oil embargo that caused widespread shortages and skyrocketing prices in the U.S. and Europe. Oil industry profits are cyclical, depending on global supply-and-demand. Biden traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia July 15, asking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to increase oil production to help alleviate the strain on U.S. supplies due to the Russian oil embargo. Biden was told no by Bin Salman, saying the price of oil had already fallen well below OPEC benchmarks, today about $74 a barrel. Biden was furious at Bin Salman, threatening to take unspecified measures. Today’s pump prices have come down but not to pre-Ukraine War levels.
Biden decided he’d throw his financial and military support to Ukraine, imposing a Russian oil embargo, largely to force 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin to get out Ukraine. But in the 10 months of war, Biden committed U.S. treasure to funding the Ukraine government and war against the Russian Federation. Now threatening to supply Kiev with Patriot Missile Batteries, the Kremlin warned Biden that there would be consequences to the U.S. to adding more lethal offensive weapons. Ukraine has already sent predator drones to attack airbases inside Russia, prompting, prompting a furious air assault on Ukraine’s infrastructure. Instead of working toward a ceasefire and peace talks, Biden and Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky still think they can break the Russian military, maybe topple Putin. Ukraine complains daily about its decimated infrastructure.
Biden’s attacks on U.S. and global oil companies come after his administration cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, transporting tar sands oil from Canada to Houston, Tx., essentially wrecking the U.S. fracking industry. Biden had no clue that his Russian oil embargo would do more damage to U.S. and European consumers than anyone in Russia. Putin has skirted U.S. and EU sanctions over the Ukraine War, selling more oil to China, India, Brazil and South African than ever before. Biden threatens the oil industry with a windfall profits tax, something tried-and-failed before during the Carter presidency when an OPEC oil embargo sent U.S. oil prices skyrocketing. “Invest in American by increasing production and refining capacity,” Biden said, investing in “their consumers, their community and their country.” Biden and his Democrat Congress has done everything to harm the fossil fuel industry.
Threatening a windfall profits tax, Biden won’t encourage more domestic fossil fuel production, he’ll discourages the industry from doing business in the United States. Biden’s war in Ukraine with his Russian oil embargo has been the most harmful event to the oil industry, creating shortages and spiraling prices. Instead of working to end the Ukraine War, Biden talks of giving Ukraine Patriot Missile Batteries, something the Kremlin warned with turn the U.S. into an enemy combatant with the Russian Federation. French President Emmanuel Macron, 44, is the only EU leader pushing back on the U.S. war effort against the Russian Federation. Macron seeks nothing but carnage and destruction to Ukraine its war with the Kremlin. Yet there’s zero interest on Biden’s part to move the conflict from the battlefield to the peace table. Only then can world oil markets eventually recover.
Biden seeks the oil industry as profiting from the Ukraine War, when many U.S. defense contractors have enriched themselves supplying unlimited cash-and-arms-to fund the Ukraine War. “It’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities in his this country and give the American people a break,” Biden said. Biden knows that the only thing that will stop oil shortages and spiraling prices is an end to the Ukraine War. “There has been a discussion in the U.S. about our industry returning some of our profits directly to the American people,” said ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods. “Can’t believe I have to say this but giving profits to shareholders is not the same as bring prices down for American families,” Biden said, again blaming industry price gouging not his Russian oil embargo. Disrupting the supply chain has consequences for consumers.
Biden got caught up in the Democrat claptrap about renewable energy and nuclear power as the wave of the future. In the mean time, American consumers are paying through the nose at the pumps all because Biden refuses to find a practical peace proposal to end the Ukraine War. All the talk about it’s Putin fault doesn’t solve the immediate problem of how the current Russian oil embargo harms U.S. and European consumers. Biden knows that a windfall profits tax has been tried before and failed. If the president wants the oil industry to recover, he needs to figure out a way to end the Ukraine War. It’s not enough to blame only Putin, since all conflicts have two sides. Biden and his EU and NATO colleagues need to lobby Kiev to go to the peace table with Moscow and work out a mutually beneficial peace deal. U.S. and EU donors will help Ukraine rebuild after a peace deal can be reached.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
