Biden admin paradox: Boost oil — and cut CO2?
The Biden administration’s seemingly contradictory energy and climate strategy was on full display here Wednesday: Try to pivot away from fossil fuels, but promote them for now.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm faced that paradox as she addressed energy leaders and insiders gathered in a hotel ballroom, praising the uptick in U.S. oil and gas exports during Russia’s war in Ukraine while touting a clean energy shift.
“Europe is poised to reach the spring without major outages or shortages, and that’s thanks in no small part to many in this room, who have been producing and exporting and working with the U.S. and with allies,” Granholm said.
“Indeed, the U.S. has become in this year an indispensable energy partner to our allies and a global energy powerhouse,” she said to applause.
Granholm’s remarks at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference came one year after she called on the oil and gas industry — at the same meeting of energy leaders — to boost production (Energywire, March 10, 2022). At the time, industry leaders criticized the Biden administration for what they saw as a slow permitting process for liquefied natural gas terminals and other projects.
Since then, U.S. crude oil exports to Europe have climbed along with an increase in liquefied natural gas shipments. The European Union slapped a ban on seaborne Russian crude in December amid Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine. And last month, the body banned some key Russian petroleum products (E&E News PM, Feb. 6).
The surge comes as the Biden administration is simultaneously pushing to decarbonize the U.S. power sector by 2035 and move away from vehicles and power plants that rely on oil and gas from many of the companies appearing at the conference. President Joe Biden has called for a net-zero U.S. economy by midcentury. [Continue reading…]
BP CEO Bernard Looney’s 2022 pay packet more than doubled to around $12 million on the back of bumper profits amid spiralling energy prices, while BP’s emissions were broadly unchanged, its annual report showed on Friday.
BP reported a record profit of $28 billion for 2022 and hiked its dividend, but infuriated climate activists by rowing back on plans to slash oil and gas output and reduce carbon emissions by 2030. [Continue reading…]