Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told Newsmax on Monday that President Joe Biden's green energy policies are stifling private companies and investors in rich energy states from harvesting those resources.
"This is not a government action, but it is the private sector that does the drilling," Hutchinson said during "The Chris Salcedo Show" on Monday. "The challenge is that Biden went for an all green policy for energy. It didn't work, prices soared, the public complained, so he tried to reverse that and say 'yes, let's open it up again.' But that's too late, and the private sector does not want to invest huge amounts of capital over the long term when they worry about whenever they reverse the policy again."
CNN reported Sunday that energy experts are saying that oil companies are showing a lack of interest in attempts by the Biden administration to open drilling back up on federal lands after shutting production down after taking office in January.
"I would say it's 60% financial markets are telling them 'no,'" Robert McNally, president of energy consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group and an energy adviser to former President George W. Bush told CNN. "It's 30% they're still fearful of another bust, and then 10%, 'the politicians, they're not going to make it easy for me.'"
According to the report, OPEC+ said last week that it intends to reduce production by 2 million barrels a day starting next month, drawing outrage from Congressional Republicans, including Alaska's GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
"The members of OPEC+ clearly have little regard for the consequences of their actions. While higher oil prices may be good for their coffers for a time, they will harm families and businesses around the world. Even if this agreement is predicated on a global recession, their actions today will only contribute to it," Murkowski said in an Oct. 5 statement. "While I will never object to lower production from OPEC+, it is deeply regrettable that the U.S. is essentially caught flat-footed by this agreement. The Biden administration has had more than a year and a half to prepare for this turn of events, including more than seven months since the start of Russia's catastrophic war against Ukraine, but failed to do so."
Hutchinson said the nation needs a "long-term" policy leading to energy independence, which would require a "different" president.
"It means we have to have a different president a different administration that will have an energy policy that works for our independence," he said. "But also, we have to be able to support enough energy so that we can supply our allies. We don't want them dependent upon Russia. We don't want to be dependent upon OPEC+ or Venezuela, so we've got to produce with friendly nations and create a supply chain that is long lasting."
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