Biden Energy Plan
Nicholas Podell
President Biden’s campaign promise for the 2020 election was a return to normalcy in government following the turbulent years of the Trump administration. As the Biden presidency begins to take shape, it has become clear that the geopolitical landscape has changed dramatically since the Obama administration. It remains uncertain if American policy will adapt to these changed circumstances. Regarding energy policy, on March 31st the Biden administration signaled a strong commitment to the promise of normalcy: the resumption of petrol diplomacy and the central geopolitical importance of cheap, Gulf oil to the American economy. In a tweet referring to a previous conversation with Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin al Saud, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm stated that, “We reaffirmed the importance of international cooperation to ensure affordable and reliable sources of energy for our consumers.” In other words, the Biden administration seeks to resume the political consensus of the U.S.-Saudi relations which have been the backbone of American energy policy since the Carter administration. America consistently offers protection in exchange for the flow of cheap Saudi oil to the United States and the industrialized economies of Western Europe and East Asia.
The March 31st announcement was, however, issued only a month after president Biden signed a flurry of Executive orders that seek to rapidly electrify the vehicles of the Federal government, halt Federal oil leases, and broadly decarbonize Federal infrastructure. These two sets of policies illustrate a contradiction in America's economy. President Biden has expressed a desire to transition from the oil industry to renewable energy—a goal seconded at the corporate level by vehicle manufacturers like General Motors who announced its plans to exclusively sell zero-emission electric cars in fewer than 15 years.
Far from a politically minded public relations move, GM’s decision reflects a broader global shift towards electric vehicles and a less petroleum dependent economy. For instance, last fall, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a report which lays out China's intention to phase out gas burning cars by 2035. Similar policy recommendations are being pursued by the European Union.
On the other hand, Biden’s reluctance to adjust America’s relationship with the Saudi regime and pursue a renewable energy policy abroad speaks to the current precarity of domestic oil production and the continued dependence of American industries’ on foreign oil. No matter what the Biden administration says about the future of American energy policy, Gulf oil is what currently keeps the engine of the American economy humming. Any structural adjustment of that long-standing arrangement will be fraught with domestic and international political and economic challenges. Should major energy consumers like the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea follow through on their pledges to transition to renewable energy, the geopolitical implications would be enormous. An inversion of the petroleum based status quo that has governed global affairs since the end of World War II would radically alter global politics in ways which are difficult to assess. Given ecological, geopolitical, and popular considerations it seems inevitable that the age of oil is ending. It remains to be seen how the Biden administration will help America transition into an oil-less world.