During an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s special presidential coordinator for international energy policy, revealed that the Biden administration planned on eliminating oil use within the next “several years.”
Hochstein’s comments came as he was questioned on why anyone would invest in oil companies if it is a shrinking industry. His defense was that oil use would be eliminated in “several years” rather than “two or three years.”
“Eventually we are going to be phasing out the use of oil,” Hochstein said.
“What is eventually? What’s eventually?” Kernen asked. “You’re not going to want to invest any money in doing this, if it’s two or three years from now, or five years out.”
“I don’t think we’re talking about two or three years, we’re talking about longer than that,” Hochstein responded. “As you know well, the production in the United States, onshore production in the United States is short cycle, there can be investment. And recovery of those investments happens at a much shorter cycle than offshore, deep water, and those kinds of investments, that are more expensive and take significantly more time to recover.”
“So we understand that the economy in the United States and around the world is going to be using oil for several more years, as we transition,” Hochstein added. “And look at our own goals. Our goal has been to have 50% of new car sales by 2030 be electric vehicles. That tells you that — how much longer we still see oil in the market, and that’s just 50% of new car sales. By 2035, we’re probably going to go, even if we go to 100% of new car sales being electric, you still have the entire fleet there. And you know we make other things from oil as well.”
