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President Joe Biden expressed his disappointment on Wednesday with OPEC+’s decision to reduce its pumping by 2 million barrels per day and considered it a “short-sighted” measure.
In a statement, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his economic advisor, Brian Deese, argued that at a time when maintaining global energy supplies is of paramount importance, this decision will have the greatest negative impact on low—and middle—income countries.
The cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) is the largest oil supply cut since May 2020 and prompts the Biden Administration to go to Congress to consult on additional measures to reduce OPEC’s control over energy prices.
Biden called on U.S. energy companies to continue to lower prices at the pump by closing “the historically large gap” between wholesale and retail prices so consumers pay less.
Wednesday’s announcement by OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, is according to the Democratic leader a reminder of why it is so important for the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels; however, despite these statements, the Biden Administration since coming to power has supported the reduction of domestic energy capacity by closing the Keystone XL pipeline, among other actions.
The OPEC+ decision is contrary to the request of Western countries to open the taps to lower fuel and energy prices and thus curb inflation, even though it is possible that the actual cut will end up being less than announced, since most of the group’s producers have been extracting well below the established national quota for months.
