Evidently there is no hypocrisy like geopolitical hypocrisy. While U.S. climate envoy John Kerry lectures the world about getting to an ostensible “zero carbon emissions” and President Joe Biden’s first executive order in 2021 was aimed at cutting fossil fuel production, the news on Dec. 28-29 was that United States oil production, at 13.25 million barrels/day, was greater than that of any country in history. U.S. natural gas production in 2023 also set a record; moreover, America by the end of the year was pushing Saudi Arabia for the position of the world’s largest oil exporter.
This is “raising climate fears,” as the New York Times headlined an article on Dec. 1; expert forecasts now are that U.S. oil production is heading for 14.5 million bpd in 2024. Clearview Energy Partners told the {Washington Post Dec. 31, “When the head of the U.S. government tells industry to produce more, that is significant. It reflected a sea change” from Biden’s earlier rhetoric.
The fossil fuel production surge, initially an attempt to lower gasoline prices and win re-election, became—in early 2022 when it really accelerated from a level of 12.1 million bpd at that time—the Biden Administration’s economic war on Russia, Saudi Arabia and the BRICS. It has included compelling European NATO allies to import oil, expensive liquified natural gas (LNG), and even coal from the United States; the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines; the attempted “price cap” on Russian oil exports designed by the U.S. Treasury; and now the attempt to use sanctions to shut down Russia’s new “Arctic 2” LNG facility before it starts distribution.
For Biden, war clearly trumps “the planet.” The same, ironically, is true for the European Union. As EIR has reported of the latest EU rules restricting the government spending of its member countries, “defense spending” is exempted from those rules, “climate action” is not.