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One of Biden’s orders, issued on Inauguration Day, halted construction of the 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline between Alberta, Canada, and Steele City, Nebraska. When complete, the pipeline was projected to move 830,000 barrels a day from the Canadian oil sands to refineries along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Another order barred new sales of oil and gas drilling leases on federally owned land, primarily in the western U.S.

Biden also ordered the United States to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, reversing predecessor Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the treaty, which was intended to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and stop CO2 gases from affecting global weather by midcentury.

Republicans portrayed the actions as assaults on the nation’s lucrative oil and coal industries that will eliminate thousands of jobs. The Keystone decision, according to contractor TC Energy, immediately killed more than 1,000 jobs and scuttled plans by contractors to hire thousands more.

former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister recently called Biden’s administration “hostile” toward the oil and gas industry and said that the president’s clean energy policies will drive up gas prices in the future.

He warned that a ban on new drilling and fracking leases on federal lands would “create a psychology in the industry of ‘there’s going to be less available’ and the psychology drives the pricing as well.”

Writing on The Hill website on March 5, Liz Peek, a business analyst , said one way Biden failed to stem current price increases was by releasing an intelligence assessment concluding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for orchestrating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The assessment insulted the regime and likely prompted Saudi Arabia’s decision not to increase oil output, Peek wrote.

She called Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone Pipeline and pause leasing of federal lands for oil and gas development “his opening moves.” Biden’s appointment of progressives to important Cabinet posts and insertion of climate issues into every agency’s agenda “will doubtless drive U.S. oil and gas investment and production down over time. Consequently, prices will increase,” she wrote.

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