"Note, the massive drop in production started on 4/3/2020. This suggests that the covid-19 crisis had a huge impact on production. Biden's anti-energy policies certainly aren't helping, but they aren't causal to the big drop."
That chart is not really a counterpoint.
At all.
Of course US production dropped like mad starting in April last year.
Why?
Because global prices fell off a cliff and burrowed in with the start of lockdowns, which saw a huge reduction in world-wide demand.
The price per barrel actually fell to below $0... yes, ZERO dollars a barrel, for a short period the impact was so severe.
Since that time, however, a number of things have happened.
In an effort to support prices, OPEC+ began a series of production cutbacks and limits that continue.
International demand has plotted a slow, but not always steady, recovery.
Recovering demand and tightening supplies have supported price increases for both crude oil and refined fuels.
In November 2020 Biden, who ran on a green agenda that vowed to go to war with fossil fuel production in the United States, beat Trump in the presidential election. Crude oil prices began a steep jump.
In January of this year, Biden took office and began a series of steps that quickly resulted in the US going from a net oil exporter (energy independent) to a net oil importer (energy dependent on OPEC+ and other foreign producers) by cancelling the Keystone Pipeline, adding strict limits on drilling on Federal land (including on land where verified reserves are located), and has repeatedly threatened similar limitations on shale production.
The result? Crude and overall energy prices continued to surge through the summer months.
However, over the summer, in response to rapidly inflating prices, Biden begged OPEC+ to increase production. OPEC's response? Screw you, Brandon.
Normally a sharp increase in prices would result in a sharp increase in US production. But the anti-US energy steps that the Biden administration has imposed have largely throttled any US production comeback, which has done nothing but support the price jumps we've seen over the past 12 months.
Last month, for the second time this year, Biden begged OPEC+ to increase production. Guess what the answer was? Screw you, Brandon.
Think that would give cause for pause?
If by pause you mean pausing even MORE US oil supplies, well, you'd be sort of right. We're getting word that Biden is seriously considering shutting down a pipeline in Michigan that brings a steady supply of Canadian oil into US refineries. That's not a planned pipeline, it's a production pipeline, one that has been online for years.
Any idea what shutting down that pipeline and its 500,000+ barrel of oil a day supply would do to prices AND fuel supplies heading into the winter months?
Oh, and around the same time the Biden administration flat out passed on imposing sanctions on a Russia to Germany gas pipeline "because its' almost completely finished."
So yeah, your chart certainly shows the US's average crude production having bottomed out.
But it sure as hell doesn't explain why US average crude production hasn't recovered sharply in response to tight supply and increasing prices. The answer to that is Biden's widening anti domestic fossil fuel jihad.
And that, is as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.
And it's the major reason why you're seeing your pump price spike, why you're seeing consumer prices spike, and why heating your home this year is going to cost you one hell of a lot more than it has since the Obama administration.
