Darrell Castle talks about the energy policies of President Joe Biden and how he is desperately trying to hold down soaring fuel prices until after the Mid-Term Elections.

Transcription / Notes:

BIDEN BEGS SAUDIS FOR MID-TERM HELP

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 21st day of October in the year of our Lord 2022. I will be talking about the energy policies of President Joe Biden and how he is desperately trying to hold down soaring fuel prices until after the Mid Term Elections, with very little success because It is very hard to hold down energy prices even for a month without actually producing any energy.

Yes, it appears, according to the Wall Street Journal, that President Biden went begging to the Saudis for energy relief just before OPEC met on October 5th. The Journal reports:

“Days before a major oil-production cut by OPEC and its Russia-led allies, U.S. officials called their counterparts in Saudi Arabia and other big gulf producers with an urgent appeal—delay the decision for another month, according to people familiar with the talks. The answer: a resounding no.

U.S. officials warned Saudi leaders that a cut would be viewed as a clear choice by Riyadh to side with Russia in the Ukraine war and that the move would weaken already-waning support in Washington for the Kingdom, the people said.

Saudi officials dismissed the requests, which they viewed as a political gambit by the Biden administration to avoid bad news ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, on which control of Congress hangs. High gas prices and inflation have been central issues in the campaign.

Instead, the people said, the Kingdom leaned on its OPEC allies to approve the cut, which is aimed at reducing production by 2 million barrels a day.”

Yes indeed, American prestige is very high at OPEC right now as the Saudis leave the President of the United States looking weak and foolish from his own act of begging what amounts to an enemy or at least a hostile nation to save his control of congress. The Wall Street Journal rates this explanation of the call to OPEC as highly plausible.

The mid terms are weighing heavily on the minds of the administration as their poll numbers shrink with rising gas prices. They had been enjoying a bit of relief at the polls with Biden’s releasing Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) into the market. There is only so much oil in the strategic reserves and Biden is apparently willing to use a great deal of it to buy votes in the midterms.

He announced another depletion in the SPR this week which according to industry officials would take the reserves to the lowest point since the early 1980’s. The usual White House press conference by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre produced the usual mumbo jumbo about how it is all Putin’s fault and the fault of the oil industry and even reserved a little blame for gas stations hoping, I guess, that people are dumb enough to accept such nonsense.

Releases from the SPR are usually reserved for natural disasters or national emergencies so I guess faltering poll numbers and nervous reaction to the coming elections qualify as a national emergency. Reports are that the U.S. will have about 17 days of reserves left assuming no further releases. I should at least be fair to the administration though because, surprise, administration spokesperson Adrienne Watson vehemently denied that the call to OPEC had any political purpose at all.

She denied that Biden was driven by political calculations. “It’s categorically false to connect this to U.S. elections. It’s about the impact of this shortsighted decision to the global economy.” Yes, a very believable explanation indeed. The President is simply concerned about the global economy and that is why he made a personal appeal and why he was so angry and threatening toward the Saudis.

Once again, President Biden has left himself on the horns of a dilemma.