Wirth said some "modest but meaningful steps on permitting reform" for U.S. producers were included in the, and the industry hopes "that's a sign of an intent on the part of the [Biden] administration and Congress to work further towards energy policy that balances economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection but doesn't over-focus on any of those."The Chevron CEO pushed back against President Biden's frequent criticisms over U.S.
Wirth noted that the oil industry "lost a lot of money" when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused demand to plummet, and "as we've come out of COVID we've been on the other side of that." "The numbers can be large, but they can go in both directions, and they can go there quickly," he explained. As for leases, Wirth said, "we're not sitting on permits that we're not using."