Biden's policies hurt U.S. oil and gas producers but facilitate foreign production: Industry group

Since taking office President Joe Biden has pursued an ambitious set of policies aimed at transitioning the country off of fossil fuels in the name of fighting climate change.

When it comes to foreign producers, Biden has much friendlier policies, according to Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association. These policies, Stewart said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast Thursday, are undermining national security.

Stewart said the Biden administration has largely ignored sanctions on Iran, allowing the country to export a million barrels per day, while unfreezing $6 billion in oil payments held in a South Korean bank. Thursday, the administration announced a deal to ease sanctions on Venezuelan production.

Stewart compared it to a dating game, but with foreign dictators. “He's trying to decide which dictator he wants to date,” Stewart said.

The terrorist attacks on Israel this month, Stewart said, are highlighting failures of the Biden administration’s energy and foreign policies. Quoting former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Stewart said, “Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of every national security and foreign policy decision for his entire 40 years in public office.”

Ensuring oil in Middle East countries can get to Europe and the rest of the world is going to tax the resources of the U.S. Navy, Stewart added. In conversations he’s had with people on Capitol Hill, he said some are saying these recent events are the most precarious since the 1960s. “This is just a really, really complex and sticky situation from energy policy and energy markets,” Stewart said, adding that ultimately, the conflict will put upward pressure on oil prices, which will impact every nation, including the United States.

Stewart also suggested that the conflict might not remain contained to Israel. The million barrels per day that Iran was allowed to export generated about $2 billion per month for the country. “What do you do with that? Well, you don’t build hospitals. You fund Hamas and Hezbollah,” Stewart said.

By contrast, when it comes to domestic production, Biden has been far less accommodating, he said. As an example, the Inflation Reduction Act poured billions into green energy initiatives, but to secure the support for the bill from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a provision was added to tie renewable energy development on public lands to oil and gas lease sales.

Production on federal lands, Stewart said, accounts for 10% of U.S. production, which is approximately 1 million barrels per day. A large portion of those 1 million barrels come from offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. These are very expensive, high risk ventures, but they are very profitable as well.

Stewart said the Biden administration has done the bare minimum to meet the letter of the law, but thwarted the industry by offering offshore lease sales in areas that are least attractive for oil and gas development.

The impacts of this policy, he said, won't be felt in the short-term. “But 10 years down the road, there will be a significant shortfall in U.S. production,” Stewart said.

The petroleum sectors in Iran and Venezuela, Stewart said, also operate with more lax environmental protections than producers in the U.S. do.

Venezuela has the highest flaring intensity of all producers in the world, he said, and while the Biden administration lifts sanctions on Venezuelan producers, it sets up a program to charge U.S. producers $900 per metric ton on waste emissions.

“It's just schizophrenic energy policy, and foreign policy as well,” Stewart said.