Gas Prices Test American Appetite for New Cold War

Biden, caught between climate goals and inflation, should look to how Germany’s Green Party adapted its energy policies

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An oil pump at sunset. Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash.
An oil pump at sunset. Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash.

According to this column in the Wall Street Journal, president Biden should relax his policies and follow the lead of German politicians who are turning to coal and other fossil fuels to help solve their energy dilemma as Russian oil and gas supplies dwindle. The author says Biden is strengthening Putin’s position in Europe by not focusing on boosting our domestic supply of oil and gas.

In a report last month, J.P. Morgan laid out a path by which the U.S. could boost oil output by 6 million barrels a day by 2026. It would require $400 billion of federal investment and relaxation of regulations, “no simple political task given the energy transition proponents on its left flank and the free market proponents on its right,” the report said. But it would “relegate Russia to the middle-tier of global energy producers.”

“We, not Russia, are the energy superpower,” said Daniel Yergin, an energy historian and vice chairman of S&P Global. In two or three years, Mr. Putin’s leverage will be gone, Mr. Yergin said.

Published 6/29/2022. Link to Article. (May require registration/subscription)