Edwards: Foreign Oil Market Manipulation Guts American Energy Security   

Foreign manipulation and rigged markets are threatening the foundation of America’s economy: the domestic energy industry, anchored in the oil fields of the Permian Basin. As far as challenges go, the harsh terrain and geology we conquer in West Texas to power America is nothing compared to the malicious trade policies our adversaries use to undermine U.S. energy security. As the Trump Administration and Congress do the necessary work of leveling the playing field in support of domestic industries like steel, autos and semiconductors, a deliberate focus on the American oil and natural gas that underpins it all is missing.

The impact of unfair trade barriers is unmistakable. In April, U.S. crude futures dipped below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2021. While some might celebrate falling oil prices, this isn’t a normal market cycle. It’s economic sabotage. We know what comes next: Foreign oil giants celebrate as American rigs go quiet, workers get pink slips, and our communities hang in the balance. In just the last three weeks, the U.S. has idled 11 more drilling rigs and over 64 frac spreads. That’s not a market correction: it’s a red flag.

State-run oil producers like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela deliberately manipulate supply to crash prices one month and inflate them the next. Even Canada, a close trading partner, burns over 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to liquefy and extract tar sands crude. That’s not just inefficient, it’s dirty. Yet that oil flows, unchecked, into “green” California while U.S. producers are scrutinized for even intermittent flaring that is a fraction of Canada’s emissions. Most Californians, and many environmentalists, have no idea how carbon intensive their fuel really is.

So why do these countries do it? Because they can. They don’t follow the same rules. Producing oil in the U.S. is more expensive because we follow environmental standards, pay our workers fair wages, and invest in innovations like carbon capture, methane mitigation, and geothermal. We’re proud of that, but it comes at a cost.

Meanwhile, authoritarian regimes and state-run companies flood the market with subsidized oil that wouldn’t pass our own environmental tests. OPEC+ can afford to drive prices down because they don’t care about profit, they care about power. It’s the same playbook China uses – dump underpriced solar panels, steel, and batteries made in dirty factories, and kill U.S. manufacturing that plays by the rules.

We’ve stopped China from gutting our steel and agriculture industries. Why are we still letting foreign oil producers undermine our energy industry?

It’s time to fight back. We need Washington to act.  

We need strong trade policies that level the playing field in a market flooded by high-emissions, subsidized oil imports that reward foreign pollution and punish American excellence. Targeted energy trade policies, underpinned with enforcement mechanisms with some teeth, would reduce our vulnerability to price manipulation and supply shocks and would reward U.S. producers who are doing things right. And it would hold polluters accountable – a move that advances trade and environmental progress.

Momentum is building for trade reforms that confront the hidden costs of dirty, government-backed energy. We’re seeing this kind of thinking take shape in Senator Bill Cassidy’s Foreign Pollution Fee Act that targets pollution-laden imports like manufactured goods from China that benefit from environmental negligence. It’s exactly the kind of policy that complements President Trump’s efforts to call attention to non-tariff trade barriers like lax environmental standards and “filthy pollution havens” that prop up faraway economies at the expense of ours.

With these conversations underway, the federal government is poised to elevate America back to its proper station at the top of the global marketplace. Addressing energy trade policy imbalances must be part of their efforts. 

We should stop OPEC, China, and even Canada from dictating our future. The right policies will allow America, with the backing of West Texas might, to power its future.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Kirk Edwards, president and CEO of Latigo, an independent oil and gas producer in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author.

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