Biden Will Kill the Industry but Not the Cost of Energy

By | December 21, 2020

What does Biden promise the oil business? It is hard to say explicitly since he talks out of both sides of his mouth. He said he’d ban fracking. In debate with Trump, he denied it, challenging Trump to prove it. So Trump did, and posted his exact words.

Biden otherwise claimed a slow “transition” away from oil and fracking. Obviously he can only ban it on government land, but that would impact most drilling in the Rockies. Colorado has already banned drilling for all practical purposes, an illegal taking if there ever was one. But one can bet that coal will only be an export item soon, natural gas will be under-utilized, and oil drilling will wane to a trickle. With it will go the expertise of thousands of engineers, geologists, roughnecks, roustabouts, drillers, and even the sort of safety companies necessary for a robust industry. Expertise will disappear along with the drilling rigs and that difficult to quantify “institutional memory” of how to find and exploit oil. China and OPEC won’t be so stupid.

As drilling slows as it already has, our national reserves will fall fast. Horizontal drilling and shale oil and gas is a resource where high early production falls off rapidly. I predict by the end of 2021, we will be net importers of oil once again. And with that will be a rapid rise in oil prices which translates into high prices for gasoline. You can thank Biden and the Stupid Green Deal for that.

Since the pandemic has added hugely to the National Debt, also expect the dollar to weaken which puts price pressure on foreign oil prices. Welcome to pretend land where we create energy by government edict.