What a Day: “Chill, Baby, Chill”
The What a Day newsletter quotes RFF Fellow Brian Prest about the Trump administration’s expected oil-and-gas policies.
- ...US oil production hit an all-time record under President Joe Biden. America now pumps more oil than Saudi Arabia — or about 13 percent of global supply. Trump can’t just snap his fingers and make more oil gush out of the ground cartoon style. “Drill, baby, drill” may be a catchy slogan, but it’s hardly a coherent policy, Brian Prest, an economist at the nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future, told What A Day.
- ...Companies that produce, buy, and sell fossil fuels make decisions based on global market forces — not cheerleading from the White House. In short, they drill more when oil is expensive, and they don’t want to flood the market and drive down prices. “When the price goes up, drilling goes up,” Prest said. “You can plot over time the path of the price of oil and the number of oil wells drilled.”
- ... But leasing does not always equal production. While we may see companies snapping up leases, they may just sit on them until the price is right, Prest said.
