Biden softens anti-oil stance ahead of 2024 election

The energy sector has been abuzz with overwhelming returns for oil producers in 2022. President Biden does not appear to be pushing back against Big Oil profits despite his administration's green agenda goals for 2030. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman weighs in on Biden’s approach and how affordable fuel is key to his re-election in 2024.

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Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: It's been a busy few weeks in the energy sector with Chevron and Exxon buying up competitors in those double-digit billion dollar deals. This power move comes as fossil fuel companies have raked in profits under President Biden despite his green energy agenda aiming to push more focus on renewables. So, is Biden losing to big oil? Rick Newman has been following this. How should we be framing this, Rick, from a political perspective?

RICK NEWMAN: First, just a couple of facts, Julie. Exxon and Chevron both had their most profitable year ever in their history in 2022. And for each of those companies, their stock hit a record high shortly after that. And they've just been raking in cash since Joe Biden has been President. Now, that is a coincidence. That is not a result of any policy Biden has put out there. In fact, as everybody knows, Joe Biden favors green energy and renewables, and he signed the most aggressive green energy incentives into law in 2022 in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, and yet fossil fuels are thriving under President Biden.

So, to me, the important takeaway is everybody thinks that the President signs a piece of paper and it can either benefit this industry or kill this industry, and it just is not that way. I mean, the fossil fuel industry Exxon, Chevron, the companies they're buying, they're doing great because of what's happening in the market. And Biden is not stopping that. I mean, I think President Biden has learned a super important lesson during the last three years, which is that as much as you might wish we could burn less carbon in order to reduce global warming and get climate change under control, we are dramatically dependent on this energy and we are going to be for a long time.

And you were talking in the previous segment about this idea of peak oil. We're not even at peak oil peak oil is when global demand for oil is likely to hit its maximum level and then gradually come down, and we may not hit that for another 10 years or even 15 years or so. So, fossil fuels are here to stay, and it's no accident that these companies are doing so well.

- And Rick, you know, as you rightfully pointed out, President Biden, you know listen, he's gone after big oil before, going after Exxon in particular, why do you-- Why do you say that his learned his lesson, though, Rick? You don't think that maybe these kind of headlines draw him in again, try to politicize this a bit?

RICK NEWMAN: Because of gasoline prices-- simple. And to a lesser extent, heating-- winter heating costs. Biden got completely burned by gasoline prices in 2022 that hit $5 per gallon-- the highest they've ever been in the United States. In this, it's clear that the Biden administration has gas price PTSD because they are going around the world doing everything they can think of to try to make sure there's going to be plenty of oil on the market.

They just released some sanctions on Venezuela to coax-- you know, Venezuela barely puts much oil into the global market, even though it has so much oil. So, there's going to be a little more of Venezuelan oil coming next year. The Biden administration is doing that to keep gas prices down because they think that if gas prices surge again in 2024 when Biden's running for re-election, he'll lose. They got scorched by that in 2022. They're scared to death it's going to happen again.

And you are not going to hear Joe Biden trashing fossil fuels the way he did as a presidential candidate in 2019 and 2020 because he knows not only do we desperately need them in the economy, he desperately needs a lot of fossil fuels on the market if he wants to get re-elected in 2024.