Joe Biden’s Knockout Punch for American Energy Independence
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Just last month, President Joe Biden took a major swipe at America’s energy independence when he declared nearly a million acres of uranium-rich land outside of Grand Canyon National Park off limits to energy development.
Turns out that was just the setup jab.
The knockout punch is on its way.
According to reports, Biden wants to cancel drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, which would deny Americans access to around a total of 11 billion barrels of oil (though it could be much more).
That is a lot of oil.
Canceling drilling when Saudi Arabia continues to cut production makes even less sense. That’s because this decision will continue to chill gas and oil development in the United States, meaning that Americans will not only lose this oil but the oil production that is forgone because of the political environment Biden has created.
No company, after all, will risk the massive amounts of capital necessary to develop new energy resources when the government can swoop in and shut you down.
Like with the uranium decision, this announcement will most assuredly be cast as necessary to protect the environment. This is diversion politics at its worst. The truth is that while ANWR is about the size of South Carolina, the actual land open for development would be much, much less. According to one industry analysis, surface operations would take up only around 2,000 acres.
Commentary By
Portrait of Jack Spencer
Jack Spencer
Jack Spencer is a senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy at The Heritage Foundation.
Just last month, President Joe Biden took a major swipe at America’s energy independence when he declared nearly a million acres of uranium-rich land outside of Grand Canyon National Park off limits to energy development.
Turns out that was just the setup jab.
The knockout punch is on its way.
According to reports, Biden wants to cancel drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, which would deny Americans access to around a total of 11 billion barrels of oil (though it could be much more).
That is a lot of oil.
Canceling drilling when Saudi Arabia continues to cut production makes even less sense. That’s because this decision will continue to chill gas and oil development in the United States, meaning that Americans will not only lose this oil but the oil production that is forgone because of the political environment Biden has created.
No company, after all, will risk the massive amounts of capital necessary to develop new energy resources when the government can swoop in and shut you down.
Like with the uranium decision, this announcement will most assuredly be cast as necessary to protect the environment. This is diversion politics at its worst. The truth is that while ANWR is about the size of South Carolina, the actual land open for development would be much, much less. According to one industry analysis, surface operations would take up only around 2,000 acres.
More importantly, however, is that developing gas and oil is nothing new in the region. In fact, the American gas and oil industry has a strong record working along Alaska’s coastal plain, having safely produced around 18 billion barrels of oil since production began at Prudhoe Bay in 1977.
Then there will be claims about how stopping this oil development is necessary to fight global warming. The truth is that even if one were to take the climate alarmist claims as fact, the amount of carbon dioxide saved by not using this oil would be almost zero.
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