ICYMI: Biden Just Admitted He’s Responsible For Today’s Energy Crisis

At about the mid-point of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, he went off script. If you missed the importance of it, so did we, until we read about it on PJ Media. Because it confirms exactly what we’ve been saying was the real cause of high gas prices – namely, Biden’s war on energy.

According to the official transcript of the speech, Biden was supposed to say:

You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. It’s outrageous.

They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down. Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders. Corporations ought to do the right thing.

Team Biden has been lobbing this grenade at the industry for months. Last year, a Biden official called energy companies “un-American” for not drilling more.

It’s true that oil company profits went up, as they always do when oil prices climb. But as we previously noted in this space, the industry loses money as often as it makes it.

It’s also true that domestic oil production is still way down from where it stood pre-COVID. Look at this chart.

Over the past two years, we’ve pointed out that Biden’s war on oil – in the name of climate change – has kicked the legs out from under President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” push. During Trump’s term, oil and gas production skyrocketed, and the U.S. became a net oil exporter for the first time in decades. Gasoline prices – which had been stuck at an average of almost $3 a gallon during the Obama years – came down to $2.2 per gallon before the COVID lockdowns. Today, average gasoline prices are still well above $3 a gallon.

American Energy Alliance has tracked about 125 specific actions that Biden and the Democratic Congress have taken over the past two years to slow down or stop oil production in America.

Here’s what we concluded in our December editorial responding to Biden’s attacks on industry stock buybacks:

Still, why aren’t oil companies taking their current windfall and investing in new production?

Would you? Would you invest in exploration and recovery of oil at a time when the federal government is promising to put you out of business? Or would you do something else with that money, such as buy back stock?

The only thing un-American in all this is Biden’s refusal to come clean with the American people about why we’re in such a fix.

Well, Biden came clean Tuesday night.

Here’s what he actually said during his speech:

Have you noticed – Big Oil just reported its profits. Record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. I think it’s outrageous.

Why? They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production. And when I talked to a couple of them, they say, ‘We were afraid you were going to shut down all the oil wells and all the oil refineries anyway, so why should we invest in them?’ I said, ‘We’re going to need oil for at least another decade, and that’s going to exceed …’ – (laughter) – and beyond that. We’re going to need it. Production.

Biden’s White House handlers can’t be happy that he ad-libbed that anecdote. Because by doing so he pointed the finger of blame for high energy prices directly at himself.

And, for once, he was telling the truth.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

(A big h/t to PJ Media, which brought this line in Biden’s speech to our attention.)