Fact-Checking 5 Claims in Russia Energy Debate
RFF Fellow Daniel Raimi shares his thoughts about energy independence in the face of the Russian sanctions.
But on the whole, the United States “has never been and never will be energy independent,” said Daniel Raimi, a fellow who studies the industry at Resources For the Future.
The U.S. remains the world’s top producer of oil and gas, but it cannot single-handedly control global oil prices, even if it were to significantly boost production. Unlike state-owned enterprises like Saudi Arabian Oil Co., which can unilaterally make a decision about supply that moves markets, there are thousands of U.S. producers making individual decisions about how to respond to the market, Raimi said.
The biggest U.S. oil companies are also vertically integrated and respond to the market differently than, for instance, a company that only drills for oil or gas, Raimi added.
“There may be some very small effect of Biden administration policies on current production, but it’s likely to be vanishingly small,” Raimi said.
