Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was on Meet the Press on Sunday. Chuck Todd asked her about the administration’s response to high and rising gas prices. Secretary’s Granholm’s answer, which can be viewed at this link, demonstrates a concerning amount of ignorance of the global oil market.
Granholm claims OPEC controls more than 50 percent of oil supply. However, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, which she oversees, in Q2 of 2021, OPEC produced 32.5 percent of global oil production.
Secretary Granholm stated, “gas prices of course are based upon a global oil market. That oil market is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is OPEC. OPEC controls more than 50 percent of petroleum supply and more than 90 percent of the petroleum reserves.”
It is untrue that OPEC produces 50 percent of the world’s petroleum supply. The U.S. Secretary of Energy should know it is untrue because, again, she oversees the Energy Information Administration (EIA)—the world’s premier source of unbiased energy data.
According to EIA, in Q2 of 2021, OPEC only produced 32.5 percent of the world’s total supply of petroleum and other liquids (30779.18 Mb/d out of 94764.01 Mb/d).
She also omitted that the largest oil producing country in the world is the United States. In Q2 of 2021, the United States produced 20.1 percent of the world’s total supply of petroleum and other liquids. This is critically important because new production from the United States has been a driving force in moderating oil prices over the last decades. In fact, from 2010-2019, 81 percent of the global increase in oil production came from the United States.
But instead of working to increase oil production in the United States, the Biden administration apparently only wants to see oil production increase in foreign countries. The White House and surrogates like Secretary Granholm stress OPEC’s oil production while the administration makes it harder to produce oil here. Just last Friday, the Department of Interior announced that it would further slowdown oil and gas leasing on federal land with new climate analyses.
It is deeply concerning that the Secretary of Energy refuses to talk about improving oil, natural gas, and coal production in the United States when Congress has charged her with doing exactly that. Specifically the Secretary of Energy “shall carry out research, development, demonstration, and commercial application programs in fossil energy.” These activities include:
(A) Increasing the energy conversion efficiency of all forms of fossil energy through improved technologies.
(B) Decreasing the cost of all fossil energy production, generation, and delivery.
(C) Promoting diversity of energy supply.
(D) Decreasing the dependence of the United States on foreign energy supplies.
(E) Improving United States energy security.
The Biden administration needs to be less concerned about OPEC and more concerned about domestic production of energy and the benefits it brings to all Americans.
