By Victor Skinner | The Center Square contributor
The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association has signed onto a letter with dozens of other industry trade organizations to urge President Joe Biden to visit domestic energy facilities ahead of his scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia next month.
“Before you board Air Force One for the Middle East, we hope you will consider taking another look at made-in-America energy,” the letter states. “We would be honored to show you how our industry is involved in every step of the energy process, from fuel pumps to critical product delivery infrastructure to production zones across our vast nation.”
LMOGA is among 28 oil and gas association that urged Biden in a letter on Thursday to visit places like the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, the Gulf of Mexico, Texas’ Permian Basin and other key American energy-producing sites, “which together launched the American energy revolution that ended decades of U.S. energy scarcity and growing dependence on foreign governments.”
Biden is scheduled to travel to the Middle East in mid-July to discuss “ensuring global energy and food security” and other issues with various Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia.
The trip has drawn fierce criticism from Republican leaders in Congress who have relentlessly pointed to how the administration’s domestic energy policies are making life difficult for middle-class Americans.
“Biden, you do not need to go to Saudi Arabia to find a way to produce more energy. It’s right here in America!” U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said in a recent press conference. “In fact, you can go less than 1,000 miles to Port Fourchon, Louisiana – in my district – the hub of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, where Biden shut down production on American lands, shut down American energy.”
Louisiana’s Republican U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves has also pushed legislation to prohibit federal funds spent on presidential travel to OPEC countries if the government doesn’t hold multiple oil and gas lease sales in the U.S.
The Biden administration has also drawn litigation from attorneys general of numerous states over canceled oil and gas lease sales on federal lands.
The letter to Biden from the oil and gas industry highlights how it has “created millions of good-paying U.S. jobs, worked to shrink our environmental footprint, boosted economic growth, funded conservation in every U.S. county and transformed entire states — as the Marcellus did, turning Pennsylvania into a powerhouse of natural gas.”
“U.S. energy reserves – produced to among the highest environmental standards in the world – are the answer in the global quest for reliable energy supplies,” the letter reads. “American energy bolsters U.S. competitiveness and national security and brings economic opportunity to every corner of America.”
“Your trip to Saudi Arabia next month is important on a number of … fronts, including boosting global energy supply,” the letter concluded. “Yet American-made energy solutions are beneath our feet and we urge you to reconsider the immense potential of U.S. oil and natural gas resources — that are the envy of the world — to benefit American families, the U.S. economy and our national security.”
The letter comes about a week after Biden penned a letter to U.S. oil producers demanding they take more action to remedy sky-high energy costs, alleging domestic producers and the war in Ukraine are to blame. The Biden administration has also sought to label the problem “Putin’s price hike,” in reference to the Russian leader’s invasion of Ukraine.
“At a time of war — historically high refinery profit margins being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote. “Companies must take immediate actions to increase the supply of gasoline, diesel and other refined product.”
The American Petroleum Institute, one of the groups that signed onto the letter to Biden on Thursday, countered Biden’s demands with a letter to the president last week outlining 10 steps the Biden administration and Congress should take to tackle the energy crisis.
“While we appreciate the opportunity to open increased dialogue with the White House, the administration’s misguided policy agenda shifting away from domestic oil and natural gas have compounded inflationary pressures and added headwinds to companies’ daily efforts to meet growing energy needs while reducing emissions,” Mike Sommers, American Petroleum Institute CEO, wrote to Biden last Wednesday.