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” for the runaway 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? A graph showing U.S. oil production from 2020 compared 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:
The reality is the U.S. Oil production is actually up from 2020 and as you can see here in Trump's first year of office the U.S. was producing 9.3 million barrels of oil per day. Well now, the U.S. is forecasted to produce 12 million barrels per day and the experts say that production is on track to hit a new record next year.
In this, she conveniently skipped over how Biden reduced our domestic oil production in 2021. Luckily it was included with 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.”
But at this moment, those projections are unprovable and would likely be in response to current public outrage.
And while the U.S. was energy independent under Trump, Cabrera defended the importation of 1/3 of U.S. oil consumption under Biden in 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. There was no mention of how much gas oil we export.
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:
A third claim is that the Keystone pipeline that had it been approved it would help lower prices today. The reality here is that's up for debate but unlikely. The Keystone XL pipeline would have been an extension of a currently operating pipeline that would have acted as sort of a shortcut, taking oil extracted from the Tar Sands in Canada all the way to Nebraska. From there, an existing pipeline would transport the oil to refineries along the gulf coast. 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.
These number games in defense of Biden were made possible because lucrative sponsorships from Carvana and Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Newsroom
March 9, 2022
1:40:49 p.m. Eastern(…)
ANA CABRERA: And while there is a lot of understandable anger and frustration over the pain at the pump there's a lot of misinformation going around about who or what is responsible. So, let's cut through the clutter.
First, it's critical to understand that no one person or entity is in control of the price of gas. It's tethered to the price of oil which is controlled by a variety of factors including supply from OPEC and non-OPEC countries, demand, trade, the financial markets.
Now, let's get to some of the false claims that are circulating including one that oil production here in the United States is somehow down. That's not true. The reality is the U.S. Oil production is actually up from 2020 and as you can see here in Trump's first year of office the U.S. was producing 9.3 million barrels of oil per day. Well now, the U.S. is forecasted to produce 12 million barrels per day and the experts say that production is on track to hit a new record next year.
Another claim going around is that the United States is too dependent on foreign oil. But in reality, the U.S. actually produces much more oil than it imports. 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. For the last couple of years, the United States has been the world's top oil producer. Topping Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, and China.
A third claim is that the Keystone pipeline that had it been approved it would help lower prices today. The reality here is that's up for debate but unlikely. The Keystone XL pipeline would have been an extension of a currently operating pipeline that would have acted as sort of a shortcut, taking oil extracted from the Tar Sands in Canada all the way to Nebraska. From there an existing pipeline would transport the oil to refineries along the gulf coast. And this moving some – about 830,000 barrels of oil out of Canada every day.
And while it wouldn't have been U.S.-owned oil, proponents of the pipeline argue buying more oil from Canada is preferable to, say, well, today for instance, Russia. Keep in mind, though, the XL pipeline wasn't expected to be operational until next year at the earliest.
(…)
