Oil Change International response to Biden White House OPEC announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 11, 2021

Contact:
Collin Rees, collin@priceofoil.org

Oil Change International response to Biden White House OPEC announcement

This morning, the Biden White House released a statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan urging the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase oil production, just two days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a major report outlining the dire state of the climate crisis.

In response, Oil Change International experts released the following statements: 

Collin Rees, Senior Campaigner: 

“Transparent oil boosterism in the week of the latest IPCC report shows a fundamental lack of acknowledgement about what’s driving climate disaster. Oil interests have spent decades driving the climate crisis while denying scientific reality and blocking action.

“Manipulating the global oil supply isn’t just a handy way for the Biden Administration to keep gas prices low — it has real consequences for the climate and the ongoing fight to transition to a truly clean energy system.

“Biden needs to focus on ending fossil fuel subsidies and stopping oil and gas expansion at home, not on interfering with OPEC and pursuing dangerous distractions like carbon capture and storage.”

 

Lorne Stockman, Senior Research Analyst: 

“In the fickle world of Washington politics, few admit to the irony of calling for increased oil production in the same week that the IPCC issues a ‘code red for the climate.'”

“There is also little acknowledgement of the fact that after a decade and a half of drilling and fracking hundreds of thousands of wells, building tens of thousands of miles of pipelines, and imposing health and security risks on hundreds of environmental justice communities, the U.S. remains vulnerable to the whims of OPEC and Russia.

“Energy independence and energy dominance were myths spun by the American Petroleum Institute and its lackeys in Washington. The United States will only ever be free from manipulation of the international oil market when it ends fossil fuel subsidies, supports a just transition to clean energy, and ends the pernicious influence of the oil lobby.”

###