Gordo14 said:
Sure. Headlines and talking points will be what they are. It's what populism is all about - dumb down everything and remove critical thinking. I mean, it's also not the administration's fault, but if they don't blame it on the oil industry people will blame them.
Markets set commodity prices, not producers. And there is no evidence of supply manipulation. Anybody that pays any attention to the data understands that. Biden's advisors know that. But both parties also know that know-nothings with opinions are their primary voterbase, and so they say dumb **** for votes. They are always going to develop dumb talking points that people can nod their head to on various sound bites. Permenant government policy is usually more rationally driven. Yes the Biden administration will publicly halt federal permitting for a few months to excite their populist base, but then they quietly return to normal when everybody has moved on - because that's the rational thing to do. Sure Republicans will stick "I did that" stickers on every gas pump, but anybody that follows what's been happening globally in the commodity space knows that none of this has been driven by policy... Everything is still recovering from demand whiplash caused by COVID and supply shock from Russia's invasion. Anything else is orders of magnitude less important in the current commodity picture.
At the end of the day we need a more critical thinking and informed voter base. Otherwise we're going to be forced to make strategic errors with short term thinking as we miss the more critical larger picture. Yes inflation sucks, but the next few decades are going to be about authoritarian governments increasingly try to increase their influence over democratic society using increasingly violent means. Ukraine is just the start of what is to come - particularly if we don't flex American commitment and resolve. It will get way worse in the future the more we ignore what's happening. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is more likely to happen if we can't be committed to Ukraine for the long term which also means that hydrocarbon markets may be insecure for a long time. We can't be shortsighted or impatient; that is what authoritarian governments view as our ultimate weakness.
I don't see how anyone could believe that. All politicians care about is the next election, American people be damned. I agree they dumb down the messaging to basic talking points people will nod their head to. But even still, this admin has clearly made things worse through policy.
Cancel keystone pipeline. Green light Nordstream.
Cancel fracking and leases. Even if temporary, this scares off banks from investing, which is one of the main bottlenecks for E&P's to expand.
Increasingly adding more cost prohibitive regulations.
Drum up Ukraine war to sell weapons and start a proxy war with Russia. Sanction Russia.
Publicly ridicule and demonize the O&G industry.
Blame Big Oil for profits then beg them to magically lower prices.
Fist bump Saudi president and beg them to lower prices.
Flood the market with our strategic reserve through October to temporarily reduce gas prices for the election, then claim victory. And therefore weaken our national security as a byproduct.
And don't forget the entire Covid "pent up demand" is because of government policy under Trump to shut down the economy.
Don't see the rationality.
