Happy Friday, Show Mo Facts supporters! We are now 32 days away from Election Day, so we hope you will continue to help us hold our politicians accountable to #showmofacts. In today’s blog post, we’ll evaluate and fact-check a tweet by the current Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt. Schmitt is running as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.
In the tweet, Schmitt draws attention to decreasing US oil reserves and blames Joe Biden’s policies for increased oil prices. Schmitt engages in agenda-setting by shifting our attention to reduced oil reserves and inflating the effects of the Keystone XL pipeline while ignoring that the United States is actually pumping a record amount of oil.
Claim: Biden is on track to empty our strategic oil reserves
Fact: Yes, President Biden has been using our strategic oil reserves, but these reserves were created to mitigate the effects of an oil supply shortage, similar to the conditions we have been experiencing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The real reason that oil prices have increased is that Russia has cut off supplies of gas to Europe leading to an increased demand for oil. Simultaneously, OPEC has been artificially decreasing the supply of oil leading to an inflation in gas prices. Increased oil prices are the result of a broader global oil crisis, not Biden’s policies.
Claim: Cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline increased oil prices
Fact: Schmitt is inflating the importance of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Keystone XL pipeline was intended to be an expansion of the existing Keystone pipeline which transfers oil from Canada to the US. Oil does not rely on infrastructure such as pipelines to be transported efficiently. The US continues to receive oil from Canada through railways and other operational pipelines. The loss of Russian oil on the market has a greater impact on the market than a slightly cheaper transit method. The Keystone XL pipeline would have had a minimal effect on the price of oil even if it was completed.
Claim: Biden has banned drilling leading to increased oil prices
Fact: Since President Biden took office, domestic oil production has risen to record highs. According to statistics by the US Bureau of Land Management, the Biden administration approved 3,557 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands in its first year, outpacing the Trump administration's first-year total of 2,658 by 34 percent. Under Biden’s presidency, federal permits to drill, oil production on federal land, and the number of active oil rigs in the US have all increased. If you support the production of oil in the US, Biden’s policies actually support your views.
For the citizens of Missouri, this is important. In reality, Biden’s policies have allowed us to pay lower costs at the gas pump than we would have without these policies. His policies have reduced the impact of the global oil crisis which has been the real culprit of increasing oil prices. In fact, Americans pay some of the lowest gas prices on the planet.
Despite this information, Schmitt and other members of the GOP have continued to focus on gas policies to capitalize on people’s concerns about gas prices. This is a common agenda-setting tactic used by politicians to direct our attention toward a single factor and away from the entire picture.
While Biden has been using our oil reserves, consistent with the statistics presented by Schmitt, this tweet misrepresents the impacts of Biden’s oil policies. Furthermore, blaming the democrats for increasing oil prices directs our attention away from the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the global market. Due to the significant amounts of untruthfulness spread by this tweet, we rate this tweet EXTREME on our Pants on Fire O-Meter.
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