Biden administration working to finalize meeting with oil companies

The Biden administration is working to finalize a meeting between Energy Department officials and oil companies that is likely to take place in the “next couple of days,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.  

“We’re finalizing details and we’ll be sure to pass that along as soon as we can,” Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that President Biden is seeking to “create a forum so that the oil companies are able to put forth ideas” on how to lower fuel prices.  

Biden wrote in a letter to seven oil company executives earlier this week that said he was directing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to convene an emergency meeting on gas prices in order to engage with industry leaders.  

Jean-Pierre said on Thursday that she wasn’t sure if Biden would join the meeting. She reiterated that Biden is willing to use his authority in any “reasonable” way to help boost refinery capacity and wanted to hear other ideas from oil companies about what the federal government can do.  

“Maybe there is a way that we can help them meet that capacity,” she said.  

The Energy Department did not immediately respond to requests for information on the meeting plans.  

In his letter earlier this week, Biden accused oil companies of profiting off high fuel prices during a war time and urging them to take actions to boost the supply for gasoline, diesel and other refined products in order to help ease high fuel prices.  

“I understand that many factors contributed to the business decisions to reduce refinery capacity, which occurred before I took office. But at a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” Biden wrote in letters to executives at Exxon Mobil, Shell, Valero, Marathon, Phillips 66, BP and Chevron.  

The letter drew some criticism from industry, with companies defending their efforts to boost supply and some chiding the Biden administration’s energy policies.  

“Unfortunately, what we have seen since January 2021 are policies that send a message that the Administration aims to impose obstacles to our industry delivering energy resources the world needs,” a Chevron spokesman said in a statement Wednesday on the letter.