You know what I learned last night that I didn’t know before? Last year, 2022 (but…you knew that), the United States of America was a net energy EXPORTER. That means we produced more than we bought. This, after having to listen to the cons whine about trump greatness/Biden failures for the last two years.

Cons keep saying gas prices are so high in California because Biden cancelled a bunch of leases that weren’t being used, cancelled drilling IN ANWR (but not near ANWR), that had not produced a single drop of oil, and cancelled ONE arm of the Keystone pipeline project, the Keystone XL – that had yet to move one drop of oil, leaving the rest of the pipeline complex in place and operating like normal. The FACT that those three items had not contributed ONE DROP to our oil supply does not calculate into their “thinking” and it WILL not, either. That reality really hurts their talking point so… out it goes…

But this kind of post always gets a conservative response along the lines of “Yeah, you have your “facts” but I have my gut feeling and you have to respect that!” Um… no, I don’t. You, as a person, sure, but not your drivel. Still, I DO approach these things carefully because it’s a very complex subject and that involves looking into things. No, not “doing my own research.” Pumping a slanted question into a search engine and then browsing until I find the answer that fits my preconceived notions isn’t “research,” anyway. The best I can do is find relevant, factual information about a specific segment of the topic and highlight that information.

So Gavin Newsom goes on Hannity’s show on Fox Not-News and tells Hannity’s audience to “google 5.94 quads!” So I did. You might want to, as well. It turns out, the US is a net exporter of energy by a measure of 5.94 quads. Now, I’m going to keep it real, here, and confess I haven’t a clue what a “quad” is. Near as I can tell, a quad is some collection of British Thermal Units, or BTU’s, measuring energy output.

Okay, I can do a LITTLE better than that. (One sentence. Don’t glaze over.) A quad is one quadrillion BTU’s, equal to 183 million barrels of petroleum. And what THAT means is that the United States EXPORTED over a BILLION more barrels of petroleum than it imported. Keyword: “petroleum,” not crude oil. We still import more crude than we export but that has always been true – even under the criminal, rapist, fraudster, traitor.

You know why? While I was looking into (but not “researching”) this one segment of this one issue, I stumbled upon another fact I had not known. According to PolitiFact, most of the refineries in the United States can’t refine the oil we produce in the United States. So even though we already produce enough oil to satisfy our own domestic needs, we can’t refine the oil we produce so it goes into the world market. That means producing more American oil won’t do diddly squat for Americans.

Oh, but we are, anyway. This year, 2023 (but…you knew that), we’re on pace to produce more domestic oil than any other year ever. Even under Trump! So, why, in California, are we paying nearly $6.00/gal? Yeah, yeah, special blend and taxes, blah, blah, blah. Except, the national average is $3.70/gal. Newsom says that after taking everything “California” into account, the oil barons can justify an additional .85 cents per gallon. That should put our pump price at around $4.55/gallon. That extra $1.45 per gallon? Greed. Straight up, pure and simple. Greed. Well, okay. It could be a corporate play to harm the Biden administration by hobbling the economy but, either way, it isn’t justified by market forces. It turns out? Corporations aren’t our friends…

Now, I know, all this is just factual evidence proving that Biden hasn’t done the damage to the energy outlook of America the cons pretend he has – and what good is that when up against a MAGA con’s preferred beliefs? Nothing. Their delusions are impenetrable. But the rest of you can now know that when they complain about Biden harming the oil economy in this country? They’re just wrong. Turns out, despite the Chicken Little, sky-is-falling conservative bunk, Biden is Presidentin’ better than Trump ever did – (but…you knew that…)