U.S. Energy Chief praises oil industry for boosting output at CERAWeek 2023

(Bloomberg) – U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm praised oil executives for boosting output and lauded the industry’s “creative visionaries” in an attempt to ease tensions between the Biden administration and fossil-fuel producers.

“The U.S. has become, in this year, an indispensable energy partner to our allies and a global energy powerhouse,” Granholm said, drawing applause from a packed ballroom at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston on Wednesday.

The effusive praise was all the more remarkable when compared with Granholm’s reception at the same gathering last year, when industry executives blamed Biden administration officials for stifling development. Months later, President Joe Biden was excoriating the industry for failing to invest aggressively in new oil and gas production and enjoying a “windfall from war.”

And while Biden acknowledged the world will still “need oil and gas for a while” during his State of the Union address last month, Granholm was less equivocal in Houston.

“We know that oil and gas is going to remain a part of our energy mix for years to come,” she said. “Even the boldest projections for clean energy deployment suggest that in the middle of the century we are going to be using abated fossil fuels.”