Thread by @ChrisMurphyCT

This is the Republican line - Biden is standing in the way of "American energy dominance".

But it isn't true. It's just an oil company talking point.

1/ A THREAD explaining the real story behind the oil industry's use of the Ukraine crisis to increase profits.

https://twitter.com/HouseGOP/status/1501229624545538049

2/ First, domestic oil production has been gradually rising under Biden, after bottoming out in 2020.

The one big change Biden made was to pause new leases on public lands. But only 10% of U.S. drilling happens on public lands. And new leases take years before oil is produced.

3/ Also, oil companies already have thousands of leases for drilling on public lands that THEY AREN'T USING.

There are lots of reasons for this (COVID recession, oil/gas prices too low to justify expense of drilling), but Joe Biden isn't one of them.
news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-an…

4/ I'll be charitable here and post a super uncompelling American Petroleum Institute's blog piece giving their side of the story for why all these public lands leases are sitting idle while they complain that Biden won't give them new ones.

api.org/news-policy-an…

5/ U.S. oil producers don't want you to know this, but they have lots of non-Biden reasons to keep production low.

And even if they increased production, the price is oil is global, so a little more U.S. production won't really change prices here.
cnn.com/2022/03/02/ene…

6/ Finally, remember that much of the oil and gas we produce here doesn't even stay in America.

In 2020, America produced 18M barrels/day and exported nearly half of that. Why? Partly b/c American refiners are designed to handle Saudi, not U.S. crude.
fsmetals.com/about-us/blog/…

7/ But also, because U.S. producers sell to whoever pays the best prices. They make decisions on price, not patriotism.

Republicans don't want you know this either, but historically lots of U.S. oil goes to....wait for it...CHINA.
oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-…

8/ And the oil companies don't lack capital. Chevron made $15 billion in profit in 2021. Their profit is bigger than the entire federal budget of over half of the world's countries.

Oil companies COULD invest more in U.S. production if they wanted.
wsj.com/articles/chevr…

9/ The bottom line is that American producers will ramp up oil production when prices are high enough, not when American national security requires it.

And Biden's policies don't explain the industry's decision making. The Ukraine crisis is just an excuse to drive up profits.