Oil prices are near three-year lows. Gas prices are sinking below $3 in many parts of America. So why were Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump talking so much about expanding oil production during Tuesday night’s debate?
Harris, criticized for her previous stance against fracking, noted that she represented the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to open new fracking leases in 2022. Though Harris also repeatedly touted her support for clean energy solutions, she correctly acknowledged that under the Biden administration, the United States has been producing more oil than any country has in history.
Meanwhile, Trump, who supports a rapid expansion of oil production, attacked Harris for policy proposals that he said would decimate America’s fossil fuel business: “If she won the election, the day after that election, they’ll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead. Fossil fuel will be dead,” Trump said.
Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN in a phone interview on Wednesday that he’s “not at all concerned” about the fossil fuel industry getting destroyed because Americans still rely on oil for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
For all the candidates’ talk of promoting fossil fuel production, it’s not clear that America needs drastically more oil. (And climate scientists say that’s the exact opposite of what the planet needs).
US crude prices settled below $66 a barrel Tuesday, their lowest level since December 2021, before bouncing back a bit Wednesday.
Gas prices are at a six-month low, according to AAA. Meanwhile, OPEC+, a group of major oil-producing nations, is so worried about excessive supply and weak demand in China that it delayed plans to ramp up production.
US oil production has already spiked to a record of 13.4 million barrels per day, according to weekly federal data.
Lipow said it would be “difficult” to get US output dramatically above 14 million barrels per day because all of the most efficient and cheapest places have already been drilled.
Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, is also skeptical that US output can spike.
“As a rule, the president doesn’t have the power to quickly ramp up US oil production. The industry operates all out,” said McNally, who served as an energy adviser to former President George W. Bush.
CNN
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