A White House official said on Tuesday that U.S. oil and gas companies can and should boost domestic production while dismissing the idea that the Biden administration’s energy policies were preventing companies from doing so. Bharat Ramamurti, who serves as deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, told Bloomberg in an interview that crude oil prices are high and “if folks want to produce more, they can and they should.” Ramamurti was responding to a question about U.S. energy production and criticism that President Joe Biden’s clean energy policies have squeezed domestic drilling and contributed to soaring gasoline prices. “As of the beginning of this year, there were 9,000 permits for oil and gas drilling that were currently going unused. So, the idea that the federal government is restricting the ability of oil and gas companies to produce more I think is incorrect,” Ramamurti said, pushing back on …