JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon didn’t sugarcoat his feelings about how the Biden administration has responded to the energy crisis, which has intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
When asked about his concerns with Europe this winter, Dimon told CNBC that not only is the U.S. “getting energy completely wrong,” but the response to the crisis has also worsened the climate.
“Ever since this war started, you know that Europe is going to have a problem,” Dimon said. “And that it was pretty predictable that Putin was going to cut off some gas and some oil, and oil price would go up and, by the way, for the climate folks here, it’s made the climate worse because people have this bad assumption that higher oil prices and gas prices reduce consumption, reduce CO2. No—poor nations—India, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam—are turning back on coal plants, as are rich nations called Germany, Netherlands, France.”
“We have it completely backwards, and in my view, America should have been pumping oil and gas,” Dimon continued. “And it should have been supported, you know, we’re trying to have our cake and eat it, too, a little bit. And so, you have the problem this winter, which it sounds like they’ve got enough supply to get through this winter. But we have a longer-term problem now, which is the world is not producing enough oil and gas to reduce coal, make the transition, create security for people. So I would put it in a critical category.”
Dimon concluded, “this should be treated almost as a matter of war at this point, nothing short of that,” and said America needs to show leadership.
“America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia,” he added. And we should have gotten that right starting in March. It’s almost too late to get it right. Because obviously these are longer term investments.”
JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon: Biden's "getting energy completely wrong"; restricting drilling has actually "made the climate worse ... we have it completely backwards"
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 11, 2022
"This should be treated almost as a matter of war ... America needs to play a leadership role" pic.twitter.com/TBieNorEtH