WH: Fear of Future Regulation Isn’t a Reason for Companies to Avoid Investing in More Oil Production

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” White House Senior Adviser for Energy Security Amos Hochstein argued that concern from energy companies “that maybe sometime in the future there will be a regulation that they don’t like” is “not really the reason for stopping to invest today in America.”

Hochstein stated, “There’s no regulation that stops them. They have all the regulations, all the permits, all the leases, all the allowances to be able to increase production. They have a price certainty that they’ve had over $100 for several months. Now, it’s been in the 80s for the last couple of months. So, they have every kind of environment that they need to increase production. And to say that maybe sometime in the future there will be a regulation that they don’t like, that’s not really the reason for stopping to invest today in America. They have the cash flow. They have the ability to do it. And with everything that we’re seeing of what Russia is doing in Ukraine, I think this is the time for us to increase production at home. We know that other international events can take place that will restrict access to products and increase prices for consumers. And at the end of the day, Becky, it’s in their incentive. If consumers have lower prices on energy, then the economy is going to be healthier, which will ultimately support their goals as well. So, having this kind of a price environment where we know what the low would be and we can control the high side, I think that’s exactly what the U.S. economy needs. And frankly, it’s what American consumers want.”

Hochstein added that “There is no doubt that the oil industry and the Biden administration do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to the long-term of where we’d like to go and the role of oil in the global economy in the long term.”

He also said that the investments the administration wants the industry to make are short-to-medium-term investments, the plan to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will incentivize production, and he expects to see further increases in production.

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