Episode 249 – Biden’s War on Oil

0:01
this episode is brought to you by travis
0:03
bull johnson who is running to be the
0:05
next congressman in minnesota’s seventh
0:08
district check him out by going to bull
0:10
johnson for congress dot u s
0:15
[Music]
0:16
[Applause]
0:22
so
0:24
[Applause]
0:28
[Music]
0:33
and now matt wright and
0:36
spike cohen
0:39
good morning good afternoon or good
0:41
evening and welcome to the vanguard
0:44
force spike machine gun
0:47
cohen
0:48
co
0:49
cohen
0:51
i am matt wright and together we are
0:52
traversing the muddy waters of
0:55
freedom first and foremost allow me to
0:57
thank cava kevin for the cava i am
1:00
drinking on this week’s episodes
1:03
and i would like to thank bucky’s for
1:05
giving me this well they sold it to me
1:07
this this
1:08
i’ve had better water but it’s
1:10
serviceable water this perfectly
1:12
serviceable coca-cola product
1:15
water flavored beverage
1:22
[Music]
1:23
and of course folks be sure to like
1:25
subscribe um
1:27
follow comment to all the things that
1:29
you do and if it’s on youtube that
1:31
you’re watching this be sure to hit the
1:32
bell don’t just subscribe hit the bell i
1:35
want your phone to explode with
1:36
notifications every single time we go
1:39
live speaking of explosions
1:42
oil prices
1:44
oil prices are exploding they tend yeah
1:46
they are
1:47
um oil prices are no longer caused by
1:50
putin’s war
1:52
that’s great news kind of
1:54
yeah
1:55
um in
1:58
in their quest to find someone to blame
2:00
for high gas prices the white house
2:04
has found a new villain
2:07
refiners
2:11
[Music]
2:13
in a letter
2:16
in a letter that biden wrote to exxon
2:18
mobil ceo darren woods he says
2:22
at a time of war which i want to know
2:25
already
2:27
what war
2:31
do you mean the russian war against the
2:33
ukraine that we’re not in the one that
2:35
we’re not involved like yeah we’re proxy
2:36
war i get it but yeah we’re not
2:38
officially involved in what war are we
2:42
are we fighting right now
2:44
at a time of war
2:47
anyway at a time of war i’m reading this
2:50
in a normal voice because you know biden
2:52
didn’t write it because it’s coherent
2:54
yeah uh refinery profit
2:56
refinery profit margins well above
2:58
normal being passed directly onto
3:00
american families are not
3:02
acceptable
3:04
he sent similar letters free at a loss
3:07
most of the time oh my lord
3:10
similar letters were dispatched to the
3:11
heads of chevron shell philip 66 bp
3:14
marathon and valero
3:18
biden went on to say
3:21
your companies need to work with my
3:22
administration to bring forward concrete
3:25
to bring forward concrete near-term
3:28
solutions that address the crisis and
3:30
respect the critical equities of energy
3:33
workers and fence line communities
3:36
any reduction what
3:38
what does that even mean the critical
3:40
equities
3:42
of energy workers and fence line
3:44
communities
3:48
okay so there’s a chance biden did write
3:50
this
3:53
critical equities i think
3:55
jean-pierre wrote this this yeah that’s
3:57
also fair any reduction in your refining
4:00
capacity since 2020 and any concrete
4:02
ideas that would address to emit would
4:05
address the immediate inventory price
4:08
and refining capacity issues
4:10
in the coming months including
4:12
transportation measures to get refined
4:15
products
4:16
to the market
4:18
how about letting them make new ones
4:22
for the first time in decades
4:26
it seems like the easy answer
4:29
how about california not setting a a
4:32
standard that’s so different from
4:34
everyone else that the refineries have
4:36
to go completely bone dry
4:39
in between producing california-grade
4:41
oil and producing everyone else’s oil
4:43
which causes a i believe mid to high
4:46
single digit uh disruption to
4:49
uh the production of refined products
4:53
biden went on and called
4:55
i refinery profit margins
4:58
unacceptable
5:00
pledging to use
5:01
and this is a very terrifying sentence
5:04
all reasonable and appropriate federal
5:06
government tools to bring more refined
5:09
products to market and lower prices at
5:11
the pump
5:13
there’s one tool let them build more of
5:16
them let them build more let them drill
5:21
after those letters went out
5:23
in a moment of
5:26
korean kjp
5:28
in kjp fashion of something that
5:32
aged like
5:33
spoiled milk
5:36
the u.s energy information
5:38
administration on friday released
5:40
estimates that refinery utilization will
5:42
reach a monthly average level of 96
5:46
twice this summer near the upper limits
5:49
of what refiners can consistently
5:51
maintain
5:53
yeah
5:54
so at no point are they even going to be
5:56
able to make it back to the hundred
5:58
percent
6:00
yep and we’re never gonna get over the
6:02
100
6:04
yep now this means that we won’t be
6:06
increasing uh as biden is demanding
6:09
because it’s not possible for them to
6:13
partly but not completely because most
6:15
u.s refineries are set up to process oil
6:17
imported from overseas
6:20
rather than fuel produced domestically
6:23
which we have gone over multiple years
6:25
in the past yes which we’ve talked about
6:27
quite a bit yes this isn’t in the notes
6:29
but somebody recently said he’s
6:31
expecting this to continue going and
6:32
we’re going to be seeing six dollar
6:34
averages soon
6:37
yeah
6:38
they’ve they have nothing they have
6:41
nothing that they are willing to
6:42
actually do
6:44
to try to deal with this no they’re
6:46
gonna virtue signal about record high
6:48
profits
6:50
they’re going to uh uh implement
6:52
nonsense that does nothing like the
6:55
historic release of all the freaking oil
6:57
that they have in the domestic reserves
6:59
which works out there one million
7:01
barrels a day that’s about what a uh uh
7:04
an hour or two of that day’s worth until
7:06
they run out in about a month
7:09
yeah it’s like three actually less than
7:11
a month
7:12
so uh
7:14
right now
7:16
you know i don’t want to do a spoiler if
7:18
this is in here
7:19
right now i read it earlier today
7:22
um
7:23
there are 511
7:25
[Music]
7:26
million barrels
7:28
left
7:30
okay so a year and a half but this is
7:32
also the lowest amount
7:35
that we have had since like 1984 that
7:37
it’s ever been at and the whole purpose
7:39
of the strategic oil reserve is that uh
7:42
is that they need to have that for
7:44
strategic purposes
7:46
and as we’ve talked about on this show
7:48
and i know we’re redredging old stuff
7:49
but we might as well in case someone
7:51
missed it last time that’s not even oil
7:53
that can be uh refined and and and
7:56
shipped here nope yeah it has to be with
7:59
that oil is being released to
8:01
foreign refineries right it’s going to
8:03
then be shipped back here it’s going
8:05
over to china and it’s going over to
8:06
india and it’s going to canada and then
8:08
canada is shipping it to china and in
8:10
china and china and india are shipping
8:12
it back here like it’s
8:14
so it’s not saving you any money the way
8:17
that it’s happening
8:20
increa allow new refineries to be built
8:23
which hasn’t been allowed in decades yep
8:26
and allow for more drilling it’s that
8:29
simple and even though it that wouldn’t
8:31
immediately increase the supply
8:34
it would signal to the speculators that
8:37
something that’s actually going to do
8:39
something is being done and that would
8:41
put a dent in it
8:43
if they want to do the strategic release
8:45
and all that stuff fine but
8:48
everything we’re about to say will
8:50
either do nothing or make prices go up
8:53
go ahead
8:55
during a speech at the port of los
8:57
angeles uh last week biden ranted that
9:00
exxon made more money than god this year
9:03
shocking the pope because he’s seen
9:05
those balance sheets uh before adding
9:08
exxon start investing and start paying
9:11
your taxes
9:15
so he’s telling a company you need to
9:17
start investing you need to spend your
9:19
money during this tumultuous time that
9:20
i’ve helped create i’m not going to put
9:22
it all on biden because yes trump spent
9:24
way too much money um
9:27
oh yeah yeah this is also a trump
9:28
problem yeah this is a trump and you can
9:30
this was an obama problem before that
9:32
and it was a bush problem before that
9:33
like it’s this is a continuation um
9:36
you’re gonna tell a company that during
9:38
one of the worst economic periods that
9:41
we have seen
9:42
god i would like to say longer than 15
9:45
years
9:46
but i can’t
9:49
this 2008 was pretty bad
9:52
inflation wasn’t so high but the
9:53
recession was
9:55
yeah give it a minute yeah
9:58
fair
9:59
um
10:01
so he’s going to say during this time
10:03
you need to spend money and start
10:04
investing and start paying your taxes
10:06
well they
10:07
pay the taxes that you guys wrote that
10:09
you sir
10:11
have signed off on laws for them to pay
10:15
and they aren’t paying the ones that you
10:16
signed off on law that you voted for
10:20
that they don’t have to pay
10:22
yes
10:24
now several left-wing lawmakers have
10:27
pushed punitive
10:28
taxes on oil companies in response to
10:30
what they consider price gouging in
10:32
march senator bernie sanders proposed a
10:35
95 tax on profits in excess of companies
10:40
pre-pandemic averages
10:46
go ahead with this other one too and
10:47
then i’d like to note something that i
10:49
hope everyone watching this already
10:50
knows but go ahead
10:52
this week
10:54
uh senator well i guess last week uh
10:57
senator ron wyden out of oregon chairman
11:00
of the senate finance committee proposed
11:02
a 21
11:03
additional tax on oil and gas companies
11:06
with more than one billion in annual
11:09
revenue
11:11
okay
11:12
people listening to and watching this
11:14
right now
11:17
do you think that tax increases make the
11:21
price of something go up
11:23
or down
11:28
and you wouldn’t have to go very far to
11:30
find out the answer you could ask bernie
11:33
sanders and ron wyden when they
11:34
complained correctly that trump’s
11:36
tariffs but only trump’s tariffs not all
11:38
the other ones that were already in
11:39
place but trump’s tariffs specifically
11:42
drove up the price of goods and services
11:44
for american consumers which they’re
11:46
right they did because their taxes and
11:49
tax well i don’t i’m sorry i don’t want
11:51
to spoil the answer
11:53
you can tell us in the comments if you
11:55
think that taxes comment below make
11:59
yeah comment below on whether you think
12:01
taxes make prices go up
12:04
or down
12:06
whether adding
12:08
to the price well again up to uh sorry
12:12
so
12:13
the american petroleum institute
12:17
in their statement after reading this
12:19
letter
12:20
said the administration’s misguided
12:22
policy agenda shifting away from
12:24
domestic oil and natural gas has
12:26
compounded inflationary pressures and
12:29
added headwinds to companies daily
12:31
efforts to meet growing energy needs
12:34
while reducing emissions
12:36
yes that’s 100 true that’s correct
12:40
they went on to say i reinforced in a
12:43
letter to president biden and his
12:44
cabinet yesterday
12:46
10 meaningful policy actions to
12:48
ultimately alleviate pain at the pump
12:51
and strengthen national security
12:54
including approving critical energy
12:56
infrastructure increasing access to
12:59
capital holding energy lease sales among
13:02
other urgent priorities
13:05
ahead of his travel to the middle east
13:07
next month we urge the president to
13:10
prioritize unlocking u.s energy
13:12
resources
13:14
that they are the envy of the world
13:16
instead of increasing reliance on
13:19
foreign sources
13:21
and the foreign sources are already at
13:23
full capacity too i mean at this point
13:26
if you’re going to cut off russia’s uh
13:28
supply to everywhere but china and india
13:31
basically
13:35
everyone else except the us is
13:38
basically giving her all she’s got
13:40
captain like there’s not much left
13:43
we’re the only country on earth where
13:45
our government’s like not choke them a
13:47
little like it’s not that’s not a thing
13:50
in other countries it’s
13:52
it’s insane it it is
13:55
i want to say uh the uh api the american
13:59
petroleum institute they said they had
14:01
10 initiatives
14:02
some of that kind of sounded like
14:04
cronyism somehow i mean i know those
14:06
were it’s like top line items it’s a
14:08
hundred percent chronic like
14:10
let’s yeah i’m i’m sure cause really
14:12
it’s not ten it’s two
14:15
right let’s not let’s not kill ourselves
14:17
releases and allow for more drilling
14:19
permits
14:20
i guess that’s two
14:24
and let them build more refineries
14:27
if you want to get fancy and add a
14:28
fourth one
14:30
stop requiring this federal involvement
14:33
with eminent domain to be able to do
14:35
these pipelines because it blows up in
14:38
everyone’s faces when the judges shut it
14:40
down if you let them just
14:43
drill baby drill which i hate that term
14:45
but
14:46
what the hell whatever if you let them
14:47
drill it and you let them refine it then
14:50
they’ll be able to come up with their
14:51
own capital to be able to pay landowners
14:54
a market value to be able to build more
14:56
pipelines
14:58
so let them do that yes
15:01
it’s
15:02
we are not energy experts
15:06
this is basic common sense supply and
15:09
demand stuff
15:12
yeah that this is this is the simplest
15:17
this is the simplest form free market
15:20
economics and it’s just
15:22
let them do this prices will go down
15:25
instead what you are doing and what you
15:27
are going like what you are attempting
15:29
to achieve will end up with prices going
15:31
up now what the api mentioned is that
15:34
they they brought up biden’s trip to
15:36
saudi arabia this trip has been
15:38
postponed
15:40
multiple times sometimes because saudi
15:42
arabia postponed it and sometimes
15:44
because biden biden is both of them are
15:47
postponing it for the same reasons biden
15:49
has gone around and demonized saudi
15:52
arabia and i’m not even going to say
15:53
he’s wrong
15:55
not going to say he’s wrong
15:57
nope but he’s been going around
15:59
demonizing saudi arabia on a world stage
16:01
and working on a nuclear deal with iran
16:05
which the saudis don’t want
16:08
so
16:10
he knows
16:14
he knows that when he shows up to that
16:16
meeting with the
16:18
round prince of saudi arabia
16:21
he’s going to have to grovel harder than
16:24
he has ever groveled before to be like
16:27
can we have that’s what he was
16:28
practicing that’s what he was practicing
16:30
doing on the bike
16:32
just go there and just
16:33
like that just right on the ground see
16:35
how quickly i can kneel
16:38
this is the geopolitical problem with
16:42
with intentionally choking off your
16:44
economy to the benefit of cronies by the
16:47
way there’s a little bit of of of cat
16:50
and mouse uh cloak and dagger stuff here
16:53
so biden is oh you’re getting record
16:55
profits and that’s not right
16:59
he’s created a a a market in or a market
17:04
reality in the united states where the
17:06
energy companies don’t have to compete
17:08
with each other because they’re all
17:10
operating at full capacity
17:13
which means their profits can go through
17:15
the roof this is what we see with
17:16
manufacturing this is what we see with
17:19
tech this is what we see with all sorts
17:20
of different industries in the us
17:23
where the government intentionally
17:25
chokes off the market in order to
17:28
benefit the established cronies knowing
17:30
full well that we’ll just go to the
17:31
other countries for our surplus
17:34
that’s coming home to roost
17:37
it’s coming home to roost in the fact
17:39
that china is increasingly a a a world
17:42
power despite itself
17:45
and even though it’s an authoritarian
17:47
regime that’s you know threatening
17:49
everybody
17:50
increasingly
17:52
and now it’s coming home to roost and
17:54
the fact that there is no addition he
17:55
can go over there and grovel they’re
17:57
gonna go thanks for the gravel we’re
17:58
already at like 98 99
18:02
and unlike you
18:04
we’re we’re doing it all like this is
18:06
pretty much it this is we’re pumping it
18:08
out as fast as we can pretty much
18:11
boom
18:12
so no and he should be able to demonize
18:15
them even more he should be able to he
18:17
should be stopping uh the war on uh in
18:20
yemen by the way uh con call uh one
18:22
eight three three stop war you will be
18:24
connected with your congressman uh your
18:27
representative uh call for congress to
18:29
end uh the uh the war in yemen or u.s
18:32
involvement in the genocide in yemen but
18:33
that’s a whole other thing he should be
18:35
able to do that he should be able to uh
18:38
uh strike a deal with iran that will
18:40
actually probably be a good thing he
18:41
should do all of that but he’s having to
18:43
tiptoe around the saudis who can’t even
18:45
do anymore
18:47
he’s scared they’re actually going to
18:49
cut off the supply because you know what
18:51
the saudis can cut off supply by about
18:54
10 percent make a big deal of it that
18:56
they’re cutting it off and make the
18:57
prices go up so much that they make even
18:58
more money producing less oil yep and he
19:01
knows that because he’s screwed because
19:03
he can’t just admit that the last two or
19:06
three decades of u.s energy policy have
19:09
been absolute garbage
19:13
all you all legitimately all you need to
19:15
do
19:16
is let them build more refineries let
19:18
open up more leases let them drill yep
19:21
that’s all you need to do and that’s it
19:24
that’s it
19:25
everything else will fall into place
19:27
so the api uh recommended white house
19:29
action including the resumption of oil
19:33
and gas lease sales which were canceled
19:35
by the white house last month speeding
19:38
which yes speeding up uh approval of
19:40
liquid natural gas projects
19:43
i don’t know a lot about it but i’m
19:44
gonna say yeah but i would say yeah yeah
19:47
no that’s that’s another problem the lng
19:49
stuff they’re they’re they’re having it
19:50
they’re concerned that lng
19:52
uh when transported uh because it’s
19:55
liquefied and it’s it’s uh condensed to
19:57
either 16 or 30 or something times uh
20:00
density that it is a higher explosive
20:03
risk but my understanding is that
20:05
there’s never been a demonstrated
20:08
disaster as a result of transportation
20:10
of lng
20:12
yeah
20:13
so
20:14
do it
20:16
and they also
20:17
recommend
20:19
lifting tariffs on steel to speed up
20:21
construction of key infrastructure
20:23
yes
20:25
yes
20:26
if those were those their only points i
20:28
would be like yeah let’s do this
20:30
do it do it
20:32
yep do all of those things but of course
20:34
the white house refuses to do this
20:37
yes because they want this to get worse
20:39
so they can grandstand on your suffering
20:41
to push for more proposals now you’re
20:43
probably watching this and thinking but
20:44
wait a second why would the democrats
20:47
why would biden the democrats do
20:49
something they know is going to
20:52
have them completely just destroyed in
20:55
the next election
20:57
why would they do that the next two if
20:59
it means they’re going to get replaced
21:01
it’s almost like it doesn’t
21:03
matter which party is in charge
21:07
and they don’t care
21:09
and it’s all theater
21:15
so it also almost like that it’s almost
21:17
like that it also uh the api also
21:19
responded responded to widens tax
21:22
proposal
21:23
warning that imposing new taxes on our
21:26
industry will do exactly the opposite
21:28
and only discourage investment at a time
21:31
when it’s needed most yes it’s going to
21:33
discourage investment and it’s going to
21:35
cause prices to rise
21:38
that is what will happen with any taxes
21:40
that comes through on this
21:42
so if you commented below
21:44
earlier that prices would go up you
21:47
would be correct
21:50
wow and how incredible that you
21:52
completely unprompted knew the answer to
21:54
that
21:54
we’re proud of you we’re very proud of
21:56
you
21:57
we’re proud of you
21:59
it’s this is just absolutely infuriating
22:02
again we are not energy experts and
22:04
frankly you don’t have to be an expert
22:06
on most of this stuff i mean an expert
22:09
like you know someone from like cato or
22:11
something like that a a true energy
22:13
expert could sit down and look like at
22:15
the granular level at specific measures
22:18
that could be taken and make a white
22:19
paper with you know 38 measures that
22:21
could be taken right now at this point
22:22
you know and all of that that’s great
22:24
and that’s important because that’s
22:26
actually what turns into policy we’re
22:28
just talking like you know
22:30
bird’s eye view 30 000 foot view
22:33
allow for more production
22:36
allow for more refinement
22:39
that’s it and yeah stuff like lifting
22:41
tariffs on steel to you know uh allow
22:43
for
22:44
more and cheaper uh product to be able
22:46
to do construction yeah that’s all great
22:48
stuff like there’s there’s many many
22:50
things you could say but literally they
22:51
all boil down to free up the market yep
22:56
and instead they’re saying we’re going
22:58
to restrict the market and put more
23:02
taxes on it to ensure that the price
23:04
goes up because we want you to suffer so
23:07
that we can get more power more control
23:10
and more money from you and it doesn’t
23:12
matter if blue gets switched to red
23:15
because we’re just gonna do it on the
23:16
next thing and then red will switch to
23:18
blue and it won’t matter because we’re
23:20
all on the same side
23:22
and it’s when you realize that this is
23:24
not about red versus blue it’s about the
23:26
ruling class versus we the people
23:28
suddenly all this makes sense
23:31
including the good cop bad cop theater
23:34
but we have good news
23:35
the good news is
23:37
if you are a muddy waters media
23:38
subscriber
23:40
then this is not the last episode for
23:42
the week no there’s yet
23:44
one more subscriber exclusive episode
23:47
that’s coming out this weekend
23:49
and i know what you’re thinking how the
23:51
hell do i get to do that no one told me
23:53
about that
23:54
i hope it it doesn’t cost any more than
23:58
50 a month well i have a fantastic news
24:00
for you you’re gonna be shocked not only
24:03
is it not more than fifty dollars a
24:04
month
24:05
it’s not even forty dollars a month nay
24:08
not even thirty dollars a month why i’ll
24:10
tell you it’s not even twenty five
24:12
dollars a month in fact it’s not even
24:15
twenty dollars a month and i know what
24:17
you’re probably thinking it’s got to be
24:18
at least 17 a month no no no no
24:22
it’s not it’s not even 15 a month and
24:26
it’s not even 14 a month
24:29
let me check if it’s 13
24:31
no it’s not even thirteen dollars a
24:33
month and it it’s it it
24:35
it’s it should be at least twelve
24:37
dollars a month but it’s not it’s not
24:40
that it’s not even
24:42
is it it’s gotta be it’s eleven dollar
24:44
it’s not even 11 no it’s 10 a month for
24:47
only 10 a month you get to be a money
24:49
water subscriber a member of the money
24:51
mud people
24:53
family
24:54
of
24:55
you get to be a subscriber which gets
24:57
you every week an exclusive subscriber
25:00
member exclusive
25:02
episode and
25:04
access to a ad free listening experience
25:07
on spotify and anchor and a 10 discount
25:12
at the muddy waters media store which is
25:13
at
25:14
muddywatersmedia.com and you can get all
25:16
of that by going to anchor dot fm slash
25:19
muddy waters
25:20
subscribers and if you do that then
25:23
you’re going to get instant access
25:26
to
25:26
this weekend’s episode
25:28
and you’re gonna be so that episode
25:30
alone is gonna be worth the 10
25:34
i can tell you that right now
25:35
so
25:36
happy to have you join us uh thank you
25:38
again for uh watching this free episode
25:41
hopefully
25:42
we’ll get you subscribed so you can come
25:44
on over to the uh to the subscriber only
25:47
episode and uh we will see you then and
25:50
where we’re going we don’t need roads
26:01
[Music]
26:18
you