White House seeks to kill U.S. oil and natural gas jobs, reward dictators

Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma President Brook A. Simmons issued the following statement in response to this week’s White House request to OPEC to increase crude oil production in hopes of slowing increasing gasoline prices:

“This is hypocrisy in its highest form. Once again, the U.S. is going on bended knee to foreign powers that do not have American interests at heart. The Biden Administration seems intent on empowering dictators and human rights abusers instead of our fellow Americans who are producing the cleanest hydrocarbon molecules in the world to enable modern life.

“Working-class families from coast to coast better wake up before it’s too late. The Biden Administration’s attack on North American pipeline construction, the halting of drilling activity on federal lands, the reversal of regulatory policies to make America more energy secure, and a full-court press to redirect your tax dollars to support intermittent power generation schemes will result in price volatility, job loss and economic harm.

“If President Biden is serious about aiding consumers at the pump, the solution is simple — unleash America’s oil and natural gas industry and let it produce for America.”

U.S. gasoline prices peaked in 2012 when the price at the pump averaged $3.90 for the month of April. By the start of 2016, the price of a gallon of gasoline fell to below $2 as U.S. crude oil production increased. U.S. oil and natural gas producers more than doubled the amount of crude oil produced in our country in the past decade, driving down the cost of gasoline for working families and spurring the economy in every state.