The 2020 election question: Are you ready for $6 a gallon gas?
Not too many of us remember just how bad things can get when you’re not in control of your energy supply
Beginning in 2008, American entrepreneurship and innovation changed the energy game. Call it the American Energy Renaissance.
The results were extraordinary. Once again, we became the world’s largest producer of natural gas and oil.
In September of 2019, we became energy independent, a net exporter of hydrocarbons. We created millions of jobs across the country and filled the coffers of states with billions in tax dollars.
We also kept gas and electricity affordable for every American family. Plus, there was a trillion-dollar swing in our favor, money was kept here rather than spent over there.
We achieved true energy freedom. One of the hugely important, but underappreciated results of the American Energy Renaissance is that peace is breaking out all over the Middle East. There’s a new order in play. Yet we have a political party and candidate who wants to end the miracle and replace it with the utopian notion of a carbonless world. There’s no such thing. Nor will there every be.
Former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democrats want to depress or even destroy one of America’s most critical industries. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to worship at the alter of Putin or OPEC. Nor do I think it’s a good idea for American families to spend 6 bucks or more for a gallon of gas or watch their electricity bills double.
BIDEN PLATFORM WOULD RAISE TAXES BY NEARLY $3.4T, STUDY FINDS
Not too many of us remember just how bad things can get when you’re not in control of your energy supply.
Let me take you back to the ’70s. A Republican president implemented price controls on crude oil. The conventional wisdom said we were running out of domestically produced oil and natural gas. There were no incentives to find more. Meanwhile, governments in the Middle East seized control of their oil and natural gas reserves and formed a cartel known as OPEC.
In 1973 and again in 1979, they held the world hostage.
It led to higher gas prices and in some cases, no gas at all.
The “oil shocks” rattled the world. They knew they had us where it hurts.
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Perversely, we and our allies became hooked on OPEC oil for decades. The cartel dictated the supply and the price, and we shipped a good portion of our wealth to autocrats, kleptocracies and the like – not to mention the hundreds of billions in military spending to protect the energy lifelines.
We don’t have to be dumb all over again. (Wind and solar will never make us energy independent.) President Trump and his administration understand the huge geopolitical and economic benefits of American energy independence and freedom brought about by the American Energy Renaissance.
His opponent clearly does not.
Harold Hamm is executive chairman of the Council for a Secure America (CSA), chairman of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance and executive chairman of Continental Resources.
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