The time has come for the Biden administration to reach out and restore the U.S. government’s historical ties with the oil industry, energy historian Daniel Yergin said.
Although President Joe Biden has directly asked OPEC+ to pump more crude to tame energy prices, he hasn’t made similar overtures to the explorers at home. But with prices now surging, the U.S. government needs to be able to work closely with producers like in previous times of crisis to avoid what could become an emergency if the situation in Ukraine persists for another few weeks, Yergin said. That would mark a shift for the current administration, which has been more focused on the transition into green energy, he said.
“It’s now time to build those channels of communication, and it has to come from the government reaching out in a non-confrontational way,” Yergin said in a Bloomberg TV interview during CERAWeek by S&P Global. “Energy security fell off the table in the U.S. as we became self-sufficient in energy, and in fact it was like amnesia. It was not only taken for granted; it’s just forgotten.”
