It was Trump who begged OPEC to increase oil production which led to a glut which caused a loss of 100,000 oil and gas jobs. Yes, COVID had a hand in the sudden drop in demand, but production was artificially increased and it exacerbated the issue. It was Trump who secured a 2 year deal in mid 2020 with OPEC which decreased worldwide oil production (in the U.S. too) which led to prices beginning to increase in late 2020. We're still in that deal as it doesn't expire until next month. However, the U.S. is actually producing more oil on a monthly basis right now than it did when Trump left office. (about 11.7 million bpm now versus 10.4 million bpm in Jan 2021) The problem is OPEC is producing LESS oil right now than it did 2yrs ago.
They make billions in profit by screwing Americans. Believe me, they won't take a loss. They made billions in profit before they started jacking up the prices. Greed! That's it plain and simple.
What's wrong with that statement? The sooner we can get away from foreign oil and to clean energy benefits us all. It'll take it least another decade and in the meantime we'll still be using oil for fuel, plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc so I don't get your "gotcha." Just theorizing here but Biden had Putin invade Ukraine so the US could move to renewable energy? Is that the argument here?
Too bad the GOP have been dragging their feet for so long. We wouldn't be in this situation now or the next time it happens. But some people and political parties are too shortsighted. The Biden administration is wise and correct in wanting to get us using less fossil fuels.
This point bears repeating. Even if the theory of anthropogenic Climate Change is completely bunk there are still are good reasons to move away from fossil fuels. Besides CO2 there are many other pollutants released from burning fossil fuels, the extraction is still damaging to the environment and uses up water resources that are also getting more vital. Most importantly though extraction is very geographic specific whereas there are sources of energy from many ways. With wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and biomass energy can be generated anywhere. Coal is a dead end technology. We're not going to get "clean coal" nor are we likely to burn it more efficiently. While there is still a lot of oil we will get to some point where it won't be as cost effective to extract. Especially if we're relying upon using things like ground water to flush out more oil. It is long past time that we are shifting away to other technologies.
JR felled for the less-than-honest spin by Posobiec fyi, since the start, Psaki had always maintained that she would be on the job for one year.
Psaki was a great asset. Biden had a good job number today. He is setting immigration records. I am still on the fence about the oil reserve releases. Seems somewhat political and not for an emergency.
US adds 431,000 jobs. Unemployment drops to 3.8%. Oil prices are dropping. The stock market appears to be recovering. And no US troops are fighting in Ukraine. At least today things look good in Joe Biden's America.
Been some crazy scenes on the border during the last week. And cover your eyes when you go grocery shopping.
What's going on at the border? As for inflation, it's pretty bad. 7.9% in March. The 19 countries that use the Euro - 7.5% in March. Something to do with current global conditions and the impact of a pandemic. Here is a high inflation that is US unique for over a decade - the price of insulin and the cost of health care. Every time we get a chance to do something about it, the GOP said nope and seems to believe that inflation is no biggie.
I hear you about the price of groceries. Heck, I do most of our grocery shopping. What you don't seem aware of is that this burst of inflation over the last several months is happening globally and is directly tied to the pandemic's impact on economies around the world. It isn't because of Joe Biden. In fact, he's doing a far better job of handling this than we are seeing in many other countries. You need to dig a bit deeper. From the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations: World Food Situation The FAO Food Price Index rises to a new all-time high in February » The FAO Food Price Index* (FFPI) averaged 140.7 points in February 2022, up 5.3 points (3.9 percent) from January and as much as 24.1 points (20.7 percent) above its level a year ago. This represents a new all-time high, exceeding the previous top of February 2011 by 3.1 points. The February rise was led by large increases in vegetable oil and dairy price sub-indices. Cereals and meat prices were also up, while the sugar price sub-index fell for the third consecutive month. » The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 144.8 points in February, up 4.2 points (3.0 percent) from January and 18.7 points (14.8 percent) from one year ago. In February, prices of all major cereals increased from their respective values last month. World wheat prices increased by 2.1 percent, largely reflecting new global supply uncertainties amidst disruptions in the Black Sea region that could potentially hinder exports from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, two major wheat exporters. Coarse grain export prices also rose by 4.7 percent. World maize prices increased by 5.1 percent month-on-month, underpinned by a combination of continued crop condition concerns in Argentina and Brazil, rising wheat prices, and uncertainty regarding maize exports from Ukraine, a major exporter. Among other coarse grains, both sorghum and barley export prices firmed month-on-month as well, gaining 5.9 and 2.7 percent, respectively. International rice prices increased by 1.1 percent in February, primarily sustained by the appreciation of currencies of some exporters against the US dollar and strong demand for fragrant rice from Near East Asian buyers. » The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index averaged 201.7 points in February, up 15.8 points (8.5 percent) month-on-month and marking a new record high. The continued price strength mostly stemmed from rising palm, soy, and sunflower oil prices. In February, international palm oil prices increased for the second consecutive month due to the sustained global import demand that coincided with reduced export availabilities from Indonesia, the world’s leading palm oil exporter. In the meantime, world soyoil values continued to rise on deteriorating soybean production prospects in South America. International sunflower oil prices also increased markedly, underpinned by concerns over the disruptions in the Black Sea region, which could potentially lower exports. Surging crude oil prices also lent support to the vegetable oil complex. » The FAO Dairy Price Index averaged 141.1 points in February, up 8.5 points (6.4 percent) from January, marking the sixth successive monthly increase and placing the index 28.0 points (24.8 percent) above its value in the corresponding month last year. In February, international quotations for all dairy products represented in the index firmed, underpinned by the continued tightening of global markets on the back of lower than expected milk supplies in Western Europe and Oceania. Besides tight global supplies, persistent import demand, especially from North Asia and the Middle East, led to steep increases in whole milk powder and cheese price quotations. International skim milk powder prices rose significantly as well, reflecting a lower volume of milk deliveries for drying plants in Western Europe, while butter prices received a boost from high demand for spot supplies. » The FAO Meat Price Index* averaged 112.8 points in February, up 1.2 points (1.1 percent) month-on-month and 15.0 points (15.3 percent) from its level a year ago. In February, international bovine meat quotations reached a new record high, driven by strong global import demand amidst tight supplies of slaughter-ready cattle in Brazil and high demand for herd rebuilding in Australia. Pig meat prices also edged up, reflecting increased internal demand and scaled-back hog supplies in the European Union and the United States of America. Quotations for ovine meat weakened for the fourth consecutive month due to high exportable supplies in Oceania. Meanwhile, poultry meat prices fell slightly due to reduced imports by China following the end of the Spring Festival and lower domestic demand in Brazil. https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/
I would definitely challenge the “not an emergency” statement in regards to tapping oil reserves. I haven’t seen any official announcements yet but my understanding is that the move is less about flooding our market in order to drive down prices and more about massively increasing our exports to Europe so that Europe can afford to levy the sanctions it needs in order to put an end to Putin’s war. Waging an economic war properly could hundreds of thousands of lives. We are sitting on a massive amount of oil and natural gas. It’s important to shift infrastructure investment to renewable and independent green energy but right this second Europe at least has no way to flip that switch over night without somebody being able to export to them in replacement of Russian oil and gas. If it’s done just to flood our market then there’s no guarantee that’ll even bring down prices given the government has no control anyways. We didn’t need the supply anyways since Russia only supplied us with like 5 percent of our energy.
Sure not everything is perfect and I would never claim it is. Just saying that for yesterday at least several things were looking good in America. There are many problems in this country but it's not the Hell Hole that much of political rhetoric would portray it as. Overall the country is recovering from the pandemic and the economy is still strong.
