Energy Alliance Head to Newsmax: Open Drilling, Not US Reserves Kathleen Sgamma (Michael Brochstein/Sipa via AP Images)
By Sandy Fitzgerald | Thursday, 06 October 2022 12:56 PM EDT
President Joe Biden's right response to the announcement from the OPEC+ group of nations that it is cutting back oil production would be to open up domestic production, not releasing even more oil from the U.S. strategic petroleum reserves, Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said on Newsmax Thursday.
"The right response would be to go to Texas, North Dakota and New Mexico, not Saudi Arabia and Venezuela," Sgamma said on Newsmax's "National Report." "We could produce more in the United States, except from day one, this administration has put up roadblocks. They canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, canceled federal leasing, and continue to throw up roadblocks for the oil and gas industry in America. It's better to produce it here than import it from Venezuela and Russia."
The OPEC+ oil ministers meeting in Vienna announced Wednesday that they have agreed to a larger cut in oil than the White House feared, pulling back 2 million barrels a day
in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks.
The administration is reportedly considering easing sanctions on Venezuela so oil production can resume there, but Sgamma said similar incentives are not necessary in the United States.
"We need the Biden administration to stop getting in the way," she said. "They're trying to starve us of financing so that we can't finance new wells in this country. They're trying to over-regulate us. They haven't stopped on any of the new regulations meant to curtail oil and natural gas in the United States."
And instead of going to Venezuela, Sgamma said oil should be produced in the United States, adding that the nation is down 1.11 millions of oil production per day than it was in December 2019, a month before Biden was sworn in.
Biden also was not treated with the same respect when he visited Saudi Arabia as former President Donald Trump was treated, said Sgamma.
"They've continued to embarrass him with this announcement now on decreasing production again, but why go to Saudi Arabia when you can just back off all the roadblocks you're throwing up in front of the American producers," she continued. "It doesn't make sense. These are done in the name of a climate change agenda, which is about scarcity of energy. It's about reducing our access to energy so we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
However, the natural gas industry has reduced emissions more than any other industry, said Sgamma. "That's the reason the United States has reduced more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country, because we've increased our use of natural gas and electricity generation. So stop calling the oil and gas industry the bad guys. Start working with us and stop putting up roadblocks so that we can't produce as much here in America as we did back in December of 2019 cleaner production here in the United States, as opposed to overseas."
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