Top oil and gas industry voice fact-checks Biden, says US to need fossil fuels for 30-50 more years

U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart said Wednesday that President Biden underestimated in his State of the Union address just how long the U.S. will continue to need fossil fuel.

Biden said the country will need fossil fuel "for at least another decade."

The comment appears to have been ad-libbed because it is not included in the official White House transcript.

"We're gonna need it for 30 years, 40 years or 50 years," Stewart said on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

Even Biden's own Energy Department has made projections of fossil fuel investment and requirements "well past 2050," Stewart noted.

Biden made the comment in an apparent attempt to calm industry fears that he is going to shut down all of the country's oil wells and refineries and to cajole producers to invest in an industry that appears to be dying.

The comment elicited laughter from Democrats and Republicans gathered in the House Chamber for Biden's speech. 

"I think that reaction from both sides of the aisle there — it caught everybody off guard," Stewart said. "And it was really one of those funny, unscripted moments."

The Democrat president needs to improve his messaging to the industry, Stewart said.

"You cannot beat us up for high energy prices and a slow investment rollout when you are telling us that you're going to make us go away in 10 years," Stewart said.