Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC’s late-night host often says ridiculous things. The 11th HourThis segment is not for the faint of heart, but it will leave you scratching your heads. Ruhle quizzed one of her guests about why American oil companies cannot simply drill for additional oil in a segment that covered February’s inflation numbers, skyrocketing prices and other issues. Ruhle doesn’t seem to know that the Biden government has encouraged more domestic oil drill.
After analyzing Thursday’s atrocious inflation report which saw inflation soar to a new forty-year high, Ruhle turned to her two guests CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Liesman and CNBC contributor Helima Croft to discuss historically high gas prices.
Helima, I asked you to come join us as gas prices are important. You’re our commodities expert. Companies that oil companies. Oil companies are making record profits. And they’re barely doing that. What is the problem? Ruhle falsely claimed that they have the money.
Croft kept muting while talking, causing minor issues. Croft claimed she would fix it. [oil companies] put more rigs to work, we’re not likely to see additional barrels of oil for six more months. Russia is such an important oil producer that we now face significant supply shortages. We’re also seeing Russian companies leaving the country, which means we are losing Russian exports.
Ruhle does not understand that oil companies cannot drill for oil anywhere and anytime they like. The Department of Energy must issue a permit. This unfortunately falls under the Biden administration. Ruhle seems also to echo Jen Psaki White House Press Secretary, as Psaki last week stated that “there’s nine thousand oil leases approved that the oil companies have not tapped into currently.”
As our sister website, CNS News reported: despite Ruhle & Psaki’s claims “oil companies can’t simply start using approved oil leases to begin pumping”
They must organize and safely manage their reservoir and satisfy several regulatory requirements, such as an onsite inspection, environmental review and permit approval. It can take over ten years for this process to complete. Experts estimate that even though these companies drill more wells now, it may take six to ten years before the oil starts flowing.
CNS also noted that according to the Wall Street Journal “Biden hasn’t held an onshore lease sale and is the only President in at least two decades not to have done so in a given year.”
Oil companies cannot just drill more without permission, even though they make record profits.
Safelite and Golden Corral facilitated this hilarious segment. The information of both is linked.
Click “expand to view the transcript”
MSNBC’s 11th Hour
3/10/2022
Eastern, 11:26:05STEPHANIE ROHLE: While inflation is not at an all-time high, prices for consumers are now 7.9 percent more than they were one year ago. It is the highest increase in 40 years. It could go worse. CNBC’s Senior Economics Reporter Steve Liesman is here, along with CNBC contributor Helimacroft. Steve, those are some very poor inflation numbers. However, they help us to understand the context. What does this mean for the economy?
STEVE LIESMAN – It is the largest negative in the economy at the moment. There are some other things that we have going for us. At least for the fourth quarter, we have seen strong job growth as well as a decent increase in GDP. Omicron may have caused a dip in the economy this quarter. It was anticipated that it would return before the invasion. We will now see the effects of the Ukraine war on the economy.
Helima: I asked you to come join me because gas prices are important. You’re our commodities expert. Companies that oil companies. Oil companies are making record profits. And they’re barely doing that. What is the problem? They’re rich!
[Silence]
RUHLE : Helima! I believe you have muted your own.
HELIMA CROFT : Ah, ok. Oil companies have reported record profits. Of course the question is, are they going to drill more? Oil companies have been under….
[Silence]
RUHLE : Halima! You just muted your self again.
CROFT: It’s gonna take time. The workers are also facing labor problems and price inflation. So even if they put more rigs to work, we’re not likely to see additional barrels of oil for six more months. Because Russia is such an important oil and gas producer, we now face a significant shortage of supply. Companies are leaving Russia to reduce their Russian exports.
RUHLE: Helima, Republicans are arguing, some, that if the Keystone Pipeline was opened we wouldn’t have any of these problems. We know this is false. Can you please fact-check it?
CROFT: Keystone XL was only eight percent complete when President Biden canceled it. Trump, however was Keystone XL’s biggest supporter. Because of legal challenges, it was delayed in the country. Even if keystone was approved tomorrow, that would not resolve the present problems. So we need to look at where additional oil can be sold to alleviate the current supply crisis. The reason President Biden wants to increase oil supply from OPEC is to be able to purchase additional oil in Venezuela. This could help to alleviate sanctions. His administration faces a very difficult task right now. We already have an extremely tight oil market. People got back on their planes and drove to work, but we experienced a shortage of oil. We are now at risk of losing the largest oil and natural gas producers from this market.
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