They make more money not drilling. That's the choice they're making.
Standing at the Port of Los Angeles, President Biden gave voice to a tension as old as capitalism itself — the distance between corporate profit and public pain. In a moment when American families feel the weight of inflation at every fill-up, Biden named oil giants and shipping conglomerates as willing architects of scarcity, even as the war in Ukraine reshaped the world's energy order. His words were less a policy announcement than a moral reckoning: a president asking whether those who hold the keys to relief bear a duty to use them.
- Gas prices and inflation have become the defining wound of Biden's presidency, with ordinary families absorbing costs that headline economic wins — millions of jobs added, low unemployment — cannot seem to soothe.
- Biden leveled a pointed accusation: oil companies holding 9,000 unused drilling permits are deliberately withholding production because scarcity is more profitable than relief, a choice he framed as a betrayal of the public interest.
- Shipping giants drew equal fire, with nine firms pocketing $190 billion in 2021 profits while supply chain pressures fed the inflation squeezing American households — Biden warned them plainly that the 'rip-off is over.'
- The president also reached for an external explanation, casting Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a 'food and gas tax' imposed on the world, threading the needle between corporate accountability and geopolitical forces beyond Washington's control.
- The administration's path forward rests on lowering shipping and energy costs, but the deeper challenge Biden faces is the gap between economic data that looks strong on paper and the lived reality of families who feel anything but.
President Biden chose the Port of Los Angeles as his stage on Friday — a deliberate backdrop of cranes and cargo containers — to deliver what amounted to a moral indictment of the oil and shipping industries. Exxon, he said, had made 'more money than God,' a phrase that distilled his frustration into something almost biblical. The company and its peers, he argued, held 9,000 unused drilling permits and were choosing not to act on them. The reason, in Biden's telling, was coldly rational: scarcity pays better than abundance. More oil on the market means lower prices, and lower prices mean smaller profits.
The critique extended beyond energy. Nine major shipping companies had collectively earned $190 billion in profit during 2021, and Biden suggested they too were exploiting a moment of disruption rather than absorbing it. His message carried the tone of a warning: the administration viewed these as choices, not inevitabilities, and it intended to respond accordingly.
Biden was careful to share the blame with forces abroad. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he said, had imposed what he called a 'Putin food and gas tax' on the global economy — a real constraint that complicated what any American president could accomplish alone. Still, he drew a firm line between geopolitical disruption and domestic corporate decisions, treating the latter as something that could and should be corrected.
The president also gestured toward the economic ground his administration believed it had gained: 8.7 million jobs created, unemployment near historic lows, a shrinking federal deficit, and households carrying less debt. Yet those figures have struggled to reach voters who measure the economy at the gas pump. That gap — between the data and the feeling — has become the central difficulty of Biden's term, and on Friday, he chose to answer it not with statistics, but with accountability.
President Joe Biden stood at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday and delivered a blunt indictment of the oil industry's response to America's inflation crisis. Exxon, he said, had made "more money than God"—a phrase that captured his frustration with an industry sitting on vast reserves of untapped opportunity while ordinary families struggled to afford fuel.
The president's complaint centered on a specific paradox. Oil companies, Biden argued, controlled the keys to relief but chose not to use them. Exxon alone held 9,000 permits to drill, yet the company and its peers were deliberately restraining production. The math was simple and damning: they made more money by keeping oil scarce than by flooding the market. "Because they make more money not producing more oil," Biden said. "Because they make more money not drilling." It was a statement that assumed a straightforward logic—that companies were choosing profit over the nation's pain at the pump.
But oil companies were not the only target. Biden turned his attention to the shipping industry, where nine major firms had generated $190 billion in profits during 2021. These companies, he suggested, were also exploiting the moment. "Let those nine shipping companies understand, the rip-off is over," he declared. The message was clear: his administration saw corporate restraint and price-setting as deliberate acts, not market forces beyond anyone's control.
Biden acknowledged the weight of inflation on American households. "I understand inflation is a big worry for American families," he said at the port, a setting chosen perhaps to underscore his focus on the supply chains and logistics that move goods to consumers. His administration, he promised, would continue working to bring prices down. Lowering shipping costs, he suggested, would be part of that effort.
The president also framed inflation as partly a consequence of forces beyond American borders. Russia's invasion of Ukraine had triggered what he called "Putin's food and gas tax," a shorthand for the global disruption to energy and commodity markets. "I'm doing everything in my power to blunt Putin's gas hike and bring down the cost of oil and food," Biden said. The war, in his telling, was a real constraint on what his administration could achieve—but corporate decisions to restrict supply were not.
Before addressing inflation, Biden had spoken about the House January 6 committee hearing the night before, which had presented evidence that former President Trump had engaged in what the committee called a "corrupt unconstitutional conspiracy" to overturn the 2020 election. Biden called the Capitol riot "one of the darkest chapters in United States history," a "brutal assault on our democracy" and an attack on law enforcement officers. He urged Americans to understand what had happened and to recognize that "the same forces that led to Jan. 6 remain at work today." The message was that democracy itself required defense.
On the economic front more broadly, Biden pointed to gains his administration could claim. The economy had added 8.7 million jobs since he took office. Unemployment sat near historic lows. The federal deficit had shrunk. Families, he said, had less debt and more savings than before. Yet none of that seemed to matter much to voters worried about what they paid at the gas pump. The disconnect between headline economic data and household experience had become the central challenge of his presidency—and on Friday, he chose to blame those he saw as choosing profit over relief.
Citações Notáveis
Exxon made more money than God— President Biden, describing oil company profits
Let those nine shipping companies understand, the rip-off is over— President Biden, addressing shipping industry profits
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
When Biden says oil companies are deliberately not drilling, is he claiming they're making a conscious choice to harm Americans, or is he describing how markets work?
He's describing it as a choice. The argument is that companies have the permits and the capacity, but they're rationing supply because scarcity keeps prices high. Whether that's a moral failing or just capitalism depends on your view.
But if they have 9,000 permits and aren't using them, why wouldn't they drill? What's stopping them?
That's the question the oil companies would ask back. They'd say it takes time to bring wells online, that they're responding to market conditions, that drilling is expensive. Biden's saying they're choosing not to because the math works better for their shareholders if they don't.
So this is really about the gap between what companies *could* do and what they're *choosing* to do?
Exactly. Biden is saying the pain Americans feel at the pump isn't inevitable—it's a result of decisions made in boardrooms. That's a political argument, not an economic one.
And the shipping companies—$190 billion in profits—is that the same argument?
Similar. Nine companies made enormous profits while shipping costs helped drive inflation. Biden's saying they're exploiting the moment, not responding to genuine scarcity. It's about who's benefiting from the crisis and who's paying for it.
What does he think will happen if he tells companies the "rip-off is over"?
He's signaling that his administration will look for ways to pressure them—regulation, investigation, public shaming. Whether any of it actually changes corporate behavior is another question entirely.