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Chevron President Mike Wirth criticized the Biden administration’s oil and gas policies, arguing they will drive up prices and “undermine the energy security” of U.S. allies.
Worth, CEO of the second-largest U.S. oil producer, said President Joe Biden’s “attack on natural gas” and freeze on new export permits for liquefied natural gas terminals puts “politics over progress” and will hurt climate change efforts.
“Removing supply from the market will raise energy costs,” Wirth said Tuesday at the Gastech conference in Houston. “It will threaten the availability of LNG and undermine the energy security of our allies. It will also slow the transition from coal to natural gas, which will increase emissions rather than reduce them.”
“In promoting economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection, the LNG permit moratorium is a failure on all three counts,” he added.
Worth’s comments come as Republicans and Democrats are at odds over energy policy ahead of the November presidential election, with Donald Trump pledging to roll back the Biden administration’s climate change policies, which he blames for soaring fuel prices.
The administration’s freeze on new LNG exports has become a major election issue in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that produces about 20 percent of the U.S.’s natural gas and could be crucial in deciding the next president.
Worth has clashed with the Biden administration before, accusing it of disparaging the industry in a 2022 letter, to which the president fired back, calling Chevron’s Worth “sensitive.”
President Trump vowed Tuesday to cut energy prices by 50% by increasing production, but analysts say most big companies are unwilling to embark on costly new drilling efforts.
U.S. natural gas prices rose in 2022 as the European energy crisis unfolded but have since fallen and have remained near record lows for several months. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline prices soared to record levels of more than $5 a gallon that year. Prices remain about $1 a gallon higher than when Biden took office but have been trending lower in recent months.
Trump has accused his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, of undermining the oil industry and has courted deep-pocketed oil tycoons to back his campaign.
“Fossil fuels are going to go away. We’re going to go back to wind power. We’re going to go back to solar power,” Trump said during a presidential debate with the vice president last week.
Harris had previously said she would ban fracking, a drilling technique that helped the United States become the world’s largest oil and gas producer, but then reversed course and touted soaring U.S. production.
Biden has sought to walk a delicate balance on natural gas, which emits less carbon dioxide when burned than coal but still contributes to climate change. He has encouraged U.S. exports to Europe to avert an energy crisis after Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, but has also sought to crack down on emissions and promote a transition to renewable energy.
But the oil and gas industry is lobbying hard to persuade the federal government to lift a moratorium on issuing licenses for new LNG plants, which is set to remain in place until the Department of Energy completes its analysis of the impact of the recent surge in exports.
A federal court overturned the moratorium in July, but no new permits have been issued for U.S. export projects since then. The suspension has sent shock waves through the industry.
“Rather than impose a moratorium on LNG exports, the administration should end its attack on natural gas,” Wirth said Tuesday.
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wills’ remarks.
Despite complaints about the policies, U.S. oil and gas producers have thrived under Biden, achieving record production and profits. The U.S. also overtook Australia last year to become the world’s largest LNG exporter.
The oil and gas industry argues that LNG can help reduce emissions by replacing coal in power generation, but some climate scientists have questioned this claim.
In a forthcoming report, Cornell University professor and methane expert Robert Howarth argues that LNG emissions are comparable to or greater than those of coal.
“The production of shale gas, its liquefaction to make LNG, and the transportation of LNG by tanker are energy intensive and contribute significantly to LNG’s greenhouse gas emissions,” he wrote.
“Shale gas production and transportation also produce significant methane emissions, and LNG liquefaction and tanker transportation can further increase methane emissions.”