With the national average for a gallon of gas at $4.25 on and rising rapidly, and President Biden’s decision to ban Russian oil set to make things worse, CNN’s Ana Cabrera was either desperate or foolish to step into the breach during Wednesday’s Newsroom to defend him with oil production numbers from 2020 – aka still the Trump presidency – to claim the U.S. was pumping out enough oil. She even argued we weren’t THAT dependent on foreign oil.
Cabrera began her “crude reality” fact-check (thinking they’re being clever) by declaring they needed to “cut through the clutter” and dispel the “misinformation going around about who or what is responsible”The soaring gas prices.
But after declaring that “no one person or entity is in control of the price of gas,” she did her best to suggest Biden was doing everything he could. This included her arguing the United States was NOT “too dependent on foreign oil.”
“In reality, the U.S. actually produces much more oil than it imports,” she claimed. “For the last couple of years, the United States has been the world’s top oil producer. Topping Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, and China.” Her proof? This graph shows how the U.S. has been producing oil since 2020 in comparison to other countries.
That’s right! She used production numbers from Trump’s last year in office to claim the U.S. was still leading in 2022. And that’s not the only way Cabrera played number games with the dates.
As part of that argument, she compared oil production from Trump’s FIRST YEAR in office (2017) to the first couple of months of 2022:
It is true that the U.S. has been producing more oil than it did in 2020. This is evident as Trump was able to produce 9.3million barrels per day during his first year. Now, 12 million barrels are expected per day by the U.S. and experts believe that this number will surpass previous records next year.
She conveniently forgot to mention how Biden cut our domestic oil production by 2021. It was however included in the graph. She also tried to use projected numbers for the rest of 2022 AND 2023 to suggest Biden’s energy policies were “on track to hit a new record next year.”
However, these projections cannot be proven at the moment. They would most likely have been made to respond to outraged public.
While Trump declared the U.S. energy-independent, Cabrera insisted on the importation by Biden of only 1/3 of U.S. petroleum consumption during his first year. “Last year, the U.S. produced more than 11 million barrels of crude oil per day. And while importing around just 6 million per day,”She said. The amount of gas oil that we export was never mentioned.
Then came her analysis of the criticism regarding Biden kneecapping domestic production by killing the Keystone XL pipeline, of which she claimed aid from the construction was “up for debate but unlikely.”
Omitting how construction would likely have been completed by now if it wasn’t for then-President Obama and now Biden, Cabrera wrote off critics, saying, “the XL pipeline wasn’t expected to be operational until next year at the earliest.”
She also didn’t seem to understand that increasing how much oil can get to refineries meant there was more getting to demand:
The Keystone pipeline, if approved by the government, would have a third benefit: it will lower current prices. It is possible, but not likely that this reality will be realized. Keystone XL would have been an extension to an already operating pipeline. It would have served as a sort of shortcut and would have taken oil from Canada’s Tar Sands all the way up to Nebraska. The oil would be transported to the refineries on the gulf coast by an existing pipeline. And this moving some – about 830,000 barrels of oil out of Canada every day.
There was no discussion of if those pipelines along the gulf were already “existing” with the idea that the Keystone pipeline was on the way.
This number game in defense of Biden was made possible by lucrative sponsorships from Carvana, Liberty Mutual. You can find their contact information here.
Below is the transcript. Click “expand to read:
CNN Newsroom
March 9, 2022
Eastern at 1:40 p.m.(…)
ANA CABRERA Let’s get to the point.
It is important to realize that the price of gasoline can be controlled by many people and entities. The price of oil is tethered to it. This includes supply from OPEC, non-OPEC, and demand.
Let’s look at some false claims being made, including the one that US oil production is down. This is false. In reality, U.S. crude oil production actually increased from 2020. You can see that Trump was producing 9.3million barrels of oil per daily in his first year. Now, 12 million barrels are expected per day by the U.S. and experts believe that this number will surpass previous records next year.
A third claim is that America is dependent too much on oil from abroad. The truth is that the U.S. makes more oil than what it imports. In fact, last year the U.S. produced 11 million barrels of oil per day. While importing just 6,000,000 barrels per daily, the U.S. produces over 11 million barrels of oil per day. The United States is the top-producing oil country in the world for the past few years. China, Russia, Canada and Saudi Arabia are the other top oil producers.
The Keystone pipeline, if approved by the government, would have a third benefit: it will lower current prices. It is possible, but not likely that this reality will be realized. KeystoneXL was an extension of an existing pipeline, which would have served to act as a kind of shortcut. This pipeline would transport oil from Canada’s Tar Sands and then on to Nebraska. An existing pipeline could transport oil from that point to the Gulf Coast refineries. And this moving some – about 830,000 barrels of oil out of Canada every day.
Although it would not have been U.S. owned oil, the supporters of the pipeline claim that purchasing more oil from Canada today is better than buying oil from Russia. However, it was not expected that the XL pipe would be in operation until the next year.
(…)
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