Right on time for the start of the climate summit in Glasgow, the American President Joe Biden has called on oil and gas exporting countries among the G-20 nations to expand their production.
In line with heads of state in other industrialized countries, Biden fears that the current high energy prices will weaken the economic recovery and overburden poor families financially.
Winand von Petersdorff-Campen
Business correspondent in Washington.
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In Germany, CSU boss Markus Söder demanded that VAT be reduced on fuel and energy, and the Left Party wants to relieve the poor. Such demands, however, counteract the long-term goal of turning our back on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.
The largest oil and gas exporters among the G-20 countries are Saudi Arabia and Russia.
With his demand, Biden repeats an advance made in August.
At that time he had asked the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC) to increase their production volumes in order to stop the price increases.
The OPEC states, however, only granted a slight expansion.
In the first half of the year, the countries were ten percent below the level of February 2020. Despite the slight expansion, they will fall below the pre-crisis level by around three percent, predicts the American Energy Information Administration (EIA).
America's oil companies should also do more
Due to scarce supplies and high demand, crude oil is more expensive than it has been since 2014. A barrel (159 liters) cost $ 85 (Western Texas Intermediate) in the United States at the end of October and $ 86 in Europe (Brent), $ 35 more than at the beginning of the year and $ 30 more than before the crisis. The prices at the American petrol stations have risen accordingly. At the end of October they were at $ 3.39 per gallon, reports the AAA automobile club: That corresponds to 90 cents per liter, which is expensive by American standards.
The American government fears the anger of the citizens all the more now that heating bills threaten to rise dramatically.
Compared to last winter, Americans will have to spend 54 percent more on propane liquefied gas, 43 percent more on heating oil, 30 percent more on heating oil and 6 percent more on electric heating, predicts the EIA.
Apparently, the White House's efforts to curb energy prices have not been limited to appeals to other countries.
The usually well-informed Politico newspaper reported that Biden's employees had contacted the domestic oil and gas industry to find ways to lower prices by increasing supply.
The White House did not give official confirmation of this move.
The contact marks a relenting of the government after it had previously angered the powerful industry with the political commitment to develop the country away from coal, oil and gas. Two decisions met with particularly sharp criticism: Biden had stopped the further construction of the politically controversial Keystone pipeline and the leasing of state land for oil and gas exploration. Last week, Democrats in the House of Representatives summoned heads of leading oil companies to a hearing to accuse them of having, against their better knowledge of the consequences for the climate, expanded oil exploration and left the population in the dark about the real risks.
Biden's push to appease oil producers complicates his attempt to position the United States as the global leader in the fight against climate change and to pressure countries like India to abandon fossil fuels. Biden's climate policy is also complicated by the fact that Congress has not yet approved the infrastructure legislative packages, in which around 550 billion dollars are reserved for climate projects over ten years.
Meanwhile, environmental groups take offense that the United States wants to continue exporting oil and liquefied natural gas.
The United States exported 8,500 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products a day last year, almost twice as much as five years earlier.
Liquid gas exports more than doubled in the five-year period - due to growing demand in China, Japan and the EU.