The United States has never been "energy independent." And Trump never put America first. ALl of those tarriffs and trade wars created a huge component of the supply chain issues, along with the rapid economic recovery once pandemic restrictions were lifted. ALl of us remember that it's been a few years since the price of lumber, steel, aluminum, etc has been what it used to be, right? Because I sure as heck do.
But if you want to parse this out, Trump's term saw more imports from other nations than Biden's first year in office.
Biden also has not shut everything down. There is a temporary pause in leasing and the restrictions on leasing within core sage grouse areas are back in play, after the previous administration illegally disregarded that. Furthermore, it's the demand for oil thatis increasing the price, not anything that the government is doing. In 2020, we saw historic lows because nobody was driving to work, etc. A pandemic has that effect on gasoline & Avgas consumption.
The price of crude determines what gets drilled and what doesn't. Cost of recovery is the biggest concern, but I'm willing to be corrected by
@wllm1313 because he actually works in the industry & understands it far better than any of us. There are currently 36 million acres of public lands leased for oil & gas production. Those leases connote a right to drill. Those companies stack leases for a variety of reasons, chief among them is to attract investors.
OPEC is the largest producer of oil in the world, and they are holding back production to raise prices. Russia is a major producer as well, and what Biden did was waive sanctions against one company relative to a pipeline due to concerns that Germany, our ally, had due to the perceived harsh sanctions that were put in place. I don't agree with lifting sanctions on any Russian company, btw, so I'm not trying to make it look like 46 is some great President. He isn't. And I totally agree that politicians are sitting back and laughing at us. All of them. With a few exceptions on both sides.
