More oil now, less oil later: Biden’s tricky message on energy

But facing soaring energy prices at home, Biden is now pushing to crank up the supply of affordable gas and oil for Americans. He is strongly weighing a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, pushing the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether gas companies are charging too much, and leading a global effort to press oil-producing countries to ramp up production.

Those moves — along with a government auction last Wednesday of oil drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico — are prompting warnings from environmental advocates that Biden’s push to lower energy prices is undercutting his lofty goals on climate, which he sees as a centerpiece of his legacy.

“There is a huge contradiction right now in their actions,” said Jean Su, who directs the Energy Justice Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to stop the oil rights auction. “It’s really all hands on deck right now for climate. . . . Right now is not the time for more oil and gas production.”