U.S. Expert Tells White House: Take Back Control Of Energy Security

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns over energy security worldwide.

Photo Insert: Sen. Joe Manchin and other congressional lawmakers argue that the best way for Washington to address the current crisis is to increase domestic oil and gas production.

The price of crude oil soared past $120 per barrel, while the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States exceeded $4, and Gregory Brew, a postdoctoral fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University, argued in a Foreign Policy essay that the White House should take back control of US energy security.

Despite the looming threat of climate change and the need to decarbonize the economy, Sen. Joe Manchin and other congressional lawmakers argue that the best way for Washington to address the current crisis is to increase domestic oil and gas production.

"On the surface, that appears to make sense. Fossil fuel production is intimately linked to energy security—that is, a nation’s ability to meet its energy needs with steady supplies at manageable prices. The more oil a nation produces, the less vulnerable it is to outside supply shocks,” Brew, an expert on oil, stressed.

“But unlike other major oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia or large consumers such as China, the US depends on private companies—rather than state-owned entities—to execute the exploration, production, refining, transportation, and marketing of its energy products. And unlike those state-owned entities, which pursue commercial opportunities in service of national priorities, private oil companies are motivated only by profit,” he warned.

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