https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/04/04/bidens-low-energy-policy/#slide-1
The long-term danger in the president’s antipathy to fossil fuels.
Gas prices are high. Voters are upset. And Republicans want to blame Joe Biden’s energy policy.
It might be smart politics to do so, but it’s not exactly honest. Joe Biden has been in office only a little over a year, and he hasn’t undone decades of American energy progress. Oil production has risen on his watch, and depending on the week, we are still a net exporter of crude oil and other petroleum products.
That doesn’t mean Biden’s energy policy is any good. On the contrary, it should be opposed at every turn because it would make today’s anomalous situation the norm for years to come.
First, let’s dispel some myths about so-called energy independence. After a steady decline in net imports that began around 2006, the U.S. became a net exporter of crude oil and other petroleum products for the first time ever the week of November 30, 2018.
The United States has never been a net exporter of crude oil alone, and it has never really been all that close to being one. The week of April 10, 2020, saw U.S. net exports of crude and other petroleum products reach their highest level on record, at over 2 million barrels per day. That week, the U.S. imported over 2 million barrels per day of crude oil on net but exported over 4 million barrels per day of other petroleum products on net.
The reason for that is America’s refineries. There are 126 oil refineries in the U.S. and only about 700 in the entire world. Companies from around the globe send their crude oil to American refineries, which counts as crude-oil importation to the U.S. Then the refined products get shipped around the world, which counts as other-petroleum-product exportation.