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Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm publicly called on oil and natural gas producers in the United States to boost output while the country is on a “war footing.”
President Biden’s most senior energy official made the remarks as the administration looks for ways to reduce gas prices, which have skyrocketed even further during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We are on a war footing,” the energy secretary told an economic forum in Houston on Wednesday. “We are in an emergency, and we have to responsibly increase short-term supply where we can right now to stabilize the market and minimize harm to American families.”
Granholm’s remarks come as the Biden administration goes on the defensive over whether its regulatory policies are at least partly to blame for the surging energy costs.
After Biden banned the import of Russian oil and natural gas, Sam Zell, the billionaire investor, told Bloomberg that production isn’t as high as it needs to be “because the administration is so negative and discouraging.”
“The transition from fossil fuels to renewables is going to be a very long process, and we are acting as though it is going to be a next-week process,” Zell said.
“At the same time that Biden was prohibiting import of Russian oil, he was doubling down on renewable and blocking pipelines.”
The price of oil surpassed $130 a barrel on Monday — a rapid spike caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Energy prices were gradually rising before the outbreak of war thanks to limited supply and a surge in demand.
Experts told The Post that the CEOs of energy firms have not had much dialogue with the Biden administration since it assumed power in January last year.
The administration’s stated desire to transition away from fossil fuels and rely more on renewable energy has forced oil and gas companies to scale down their budgets and reduce production, thus limiting supply, according to critics of the president.
The former Michigan governor said one possible short-term fix that the Biden administration is looking at is releasing more barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The administration has tapped into the reserve twice so far during the recent spike in oil prices — once in November and again last week.
Granholm encouraged Wall Street investors to lean on energy companies to do their part to help stem the crisis.
“I hope your investors are saying these words to you as well: In this moment of crisis, we need more supply … right now, we need oil and gas production to rise to meet current demand,” she said.
Granholm said boosting output doesn’t detract from the administration’s long-term goal to rely more on cleaner energy: “We can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
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