The top US environment official has defended the White House’s push for increased oil production, saying it is still “compatible” with President Joe Biden’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions and shift away from fossil fuels.
“I don’t think the goals are mutually exclusive,” said Michael Regan, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in an interview with the Financial Times ahead of a trip to Europe to co-chair a meeting of OECD environment ministers.
Regan insists that clean energy investment can coexist with greater crude production. The administration remained focused on providing “certainty” to investors to push forward renewable development, he said. “We will continue to walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Biden ran on the promise to reduce the global warming-causing emissions and shift the economy away form oil. However, as oil and gas prices have soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his administration has been forced to change tack.
Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm told oil executives this month that the country was on a “war footing” and urged them to open the taps. “In this moment of crisis, we need more oil supply,” she said. Amos Hochstein, a top energy official at the state department, also recently told the FT operators should be doing “whatever it takes” to ramp up output.
Brent crude oil, the international benchmark for oil prices, was at $112 per barrel Monday. This is an increase of about $75 from the beginning of the year and $94 from the week before the Ukraine conflict. The rise in petrol prices has also been evident.
Regan said the surge in prices had shown the US was “still, to a certain extent, held captive to fossil fuels”. Greater development of renewable resources would leave the country less “vulnerable” in future, he said.
“We can see in real time that if we continue to invest in cleaner energy, and more domestically available resources, the American people will experience less pain at the pump or less pain within their individual pocketbooks,” he added.
The EPA chief suggested that the US environment agency could assist Ukraine in rebuilding after the Russian invasion.
With the conflict having entered its second month, Regan said the agency was “closely monitoring” the environmental and infrastructure effects of the war and was ready to help with the reconstruction process.
During the 1990s, many of the former Soviet-era states in eastern Europe received environmental assistance from the EPA. It conducted a reservoir assessment in Ukraine’s Dnipro river basin. This is a major water source for Ukraine. The EPA also ran a radiation management program in the years following the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
“We’ve got a longstanding relationship based on history,” said Regan. “The Ukrainian people know that we’re poised to help on the rebuilding of environmental infrastructure and institutions as we did 30 years ago.”
Regan will present a list of international environmental priorities to the US at the OECD meeting this Wednesday. These include climate justice issues and economic security as well as pollution across state borders.
The Biden administration’s goal to halve emissions by 2030 has been made more difficult by the failure of its climate policy to be passed by Congress. The legislative logjam has led to increased focus on the EPA’s role in limiting emissions.
Regan noted that the EPA had “certain tools in its toolbox to be deployed to help protect public health and drive down carbon emissions”.
The agency has mandated a clampdown on pollution from potent gases used in air conditioning and introduced rules to curb tailpipe emissions from vehicles. It has also proposed regulations to slash methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, although some large asset managers have criticised these as too lenient.
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