If this guy can get more stupid, I’m not sue how. In this one announcement he blames Putin for high gas prices even though prices were rocketing up long before the Ukraine invasion and there’s no evidence supply has suffered as a result. Then he goes on to blaming oil companies, threatens leases after the fact (that’ll enhance investment), calls for fees on leases that are already paid for (more incentive there alright) and gaslights unnamed oil companies as unpatriotic, evil, greedy, hoarders. What a great plan to spur investment in drilling, which was already depressed by pressure from wall street.
and then he turns the strategic petroleum reserve into the “save a nickle” fund announcing 1M bbl a day will be depleted from it to help with prices. that is decidedly not what the strategic reserve is for. its a readiness supply for national security (military) contingencies in the event of war. he’s going to deplete it to a level so low it has not been seen in 4 decades at a time when peace is precarious at best.
i’m not a fan of subsidies for anything. the only ones i ever tacitly supported were the one for small drillers on under performing wells and some farm subsidies. energy independence and food are national security issues. i never particularly liked the ethanol subsidies because they make food cost more. trading one vital issue off for another isn’t a good deal. i have no problem with some green stuff, but it should not be at the expense of other energy sources. offshore windmills are fine with me, so are solar panels in the desert. turning farm land into solar or wind farms is stupid.
