Faced with high gas prices across the country, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has turned its attention abroad for a solution.
This past week it called on the cartel Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an intergovernmental collective comprised of 13 countries, to produce more oil – a move that drew harsh criticism in Congress from both sides of the aisle.
Arguing that higher gas prices harm global efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called on OPEC to take action in an Aug. 11 statement.
“While OPEC+ recently agreed to production increases, these increases will not fully offset previous production cuts that OPEC+ imposed during the pandemic until well into 2022,” Sullivan said. “At a critical moment in the global recovery, this is simply not enough.”
Progressive lawmakers and activists said that this call shows a detachment between the Biden administration and the threat of the climate crisis.
Invoking the UN’s Aug. 10 climate report, which warned against the devastating impact of climate change, they are arguing that the president’s support of the creation of more fossil fuels is dangerous and hypocritical. According to the report, which was released two days prior to the Biden administration’s comments on OPEC, the world will reach a climate tipping point in 20 years without immediate and widespread action.
“Biden can’t be the climate leader he thinks he is if he’s lobbying oil states to produce more fossil fuels,” Deirdre Shelly, an organizer at the Sunrise Movement, she said, according to The Hill.
Meanwhile Republican lawmakers argue the move increases U.S. reliance on foreign oil. Twenty-four Republicans wrote a letter to the president criticizing the comments on OPEC. In it they blame rising oil prices on the administration’s policies, such as rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and canceling the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Since your first day in office, your Administration has pursued policies that have restricted and threatened American oil and gas development, which has had devastating consequences for American workers and consumers,” the letter states. “It is astonishing that your Administration is now seeking assistance from an international oil cartel when America has sufficient domestic supply and reserves to increase output which would reduce gasoline prices.
According to Reuters, OPEC and its allies have no intention of raising their oil production beyond what was initially planned, believing it’s unnecessary.
