Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy is still getting clowned on at the White House for asking ridiculous questions over and over again, in case you were wondering.
“How is it that you guys have determined that it’s in the U.S. national security interest to ask Saudi Arabia to drill more oil, instead of just letting oil companies drill more here in the U.S.?” Doocy asked John Kirby on Wednesday. Kirby is the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House. “Well I think you know, Peter, there’s some 9,000 unused drilling permits here in the United States as well,” Kirby replied, adding: “Look, the oil production issue is a global issue. And OPEC+3 has already increased preset increases by more than 50 percent just for July and August. And we’re grateful to Saudi Arabia’s leadership on that. But we’ve never said it’s a national security interest that somebody has to pump more oil.” Doocy then asked about national petroleum reserves, a point on which Kirby said he’d defer to presidential energy advisers. Watch below:
DOOCY: How is in UN national security interests to ask Saudi Arabia to drill for more oil, instead of just letting oil companies drill more here in the US?
JOHN KIRBY: I think you know, Peter, there's some 9,000 unused drilling permits here in the US pic.twitter.com/kcZknYp9me
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 15, 2022
In April, it was announced that the Biden administration would begin offering new drilling leases for federal lands for the first time in Biden’s presidency. Previously, the issuance of such leases had been halted. The new plans included an increase in the amount companies taking advantage of such opportunities must pay the federal government. “For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries above local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of tribal nations, and, moreover, other uses of our shared public lands… Today, we begin to reset how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of Americans’ resources for the benefit of all current and future generations,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said.
In 2021, up to 80 million acres across the Gulf of Mexico were also offered by federal officials for drilling after litigation from Republican officials in over a dozen states targeting a federal halt of such leases. The president also supports the enactment by Congress of a measure that would force unused drilling leases to actually be put to use if holders want to keep them, and in April, the largest release of oil ever from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was revealed — so the idea that Biden isn’t doing anything or isn’t doing much domestically to address energy concerns just isn’t reflective of the facts. Gas prices have dramatically risen, but price issues have been unfolding around the world, not just in the U.S. — and the energy market in particular has been upended in connection to the Russian war against Ukraine. Doocy sounds like he’s just fishing for talking points.
