Biden's Energy Blame Game

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Energy costs have soared since President Biden took office. Now, the president and Democrats in Congress want to blame Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine for skyrocketing prices.
• In the week ending February 21, before Russia’s war, gasoline prices were 48% higher than they were just before Biden’s inauguration.
• Instead of embracing affordable, reliable American energy, Democrats are continuing to push their failed radical energy strategy. 

Energy costs have climbed steadily since President Biden took office. On February 21, gasoline prices were up 48% from Biden’s inauguration. After the administration spent 2021 pushing an anti-American energy agenda, it now wants to blame Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine for skyrocketing prices. While prices have spiked following the invasion, that spike came on top of a pre-war increase of $1.15 per gallon.

Gas Prices Soar Under Biden

Democrats’ Anti-American Energy Playbook

President Biden made his anti-American-energy agenda clear on his first day in office, when he revoked the Keystone XL pipeline’s permit. In the same executive order, he directed his administration to update the “social cost of carbon” – estimates used to justify costly and onerous regulations and to deny important infrastructure projects. During his second week in office, President Biden issued an executive order to ban new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. The Department of the Interior has yet to hold a lease sale on federal lands following that executive order, despite being required to under current law. In June, the Biden administration halted drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, directly contradicting a 2017 law. In the fall, President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency proposed strict methane standards on oil and gas producers. Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, led by a Democratic majority, rolled out radical new policies for natural gas pipelines that are intended to stifle new infrastructure projects in the name of climate change.

Democrats have a track record of trying to take advantage of high prices to push their Green New Deal agenda. Last fall, when gasoline prices were rising, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggested families feeling the pinch should buy electric cars so they “never have to worry about gas prices again.” In their reckless tax and spending spree, Democrats proposed a national clean energy standard, new and higher fees on American energy producers, a natural gas tax, and a carbon import fee. These and other bad ideas are designed to constrict supply and increase costs on American businesses and consumers. Their policies threaten to push energy prices even higher.

Energy Security is National Security

A robust energy economy is imperative from economic and security perspectives. Europe’s radical green energy policies have been costly for their people and left them less secure in the face of Russian aggression. The region is dependent on imported natural gas, with Russia providing a significant share. According to the International Energy Agency, Russia provided 40% of the European Union’s natural gas imports in 2021. Europe’s reliance on Russian oil has funded Russian aggression. Oil and natural gas activities and exports provide 36% of Russia’s federal revenue.

No country has felt the pressure as acutely as Germany, as it has worked to retire the last of its nuclear power plants by the end of 2022. As recently as 2011, nuclear power accounted for a quarter of Germany’s electricity. Because the country chose to prematurely close its nuclear plants and hamstrung its energy production, Germany has had to rely increasingly on coal and natural gas imports from Russia. Specifically, 55% of its natural gas was supplied by Russia in 2021; this has limited the Germans’ willingness to help respond to Russian aggression in the past.

On March 8, the Biden administration announced a ban on Russian oil, natural gas, and coal exports to the United States, but only after Congress signaled it would act on similar legislation and oil companies said they would stop buying Russian oil. There are reports that the administration has begun talks to shift global dependence on Russian oil to Venezuela and Iran instead. There are currently sanctions against both countries selling oil internationally – Venezuela due to significant human rights abuses and Iran due to its illicit nuclear activities, state sponsorship of terrorism, ballistic missile activity, and human rights abuses.

The left is trying to pin the blame for high gas prices on Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite its own strategy to constrict American energy production and its reckless spending that has stoked inflation to a 40-year high. Instead of making things difficult for domestic energy producers and then proposing we buy supplies from our adversaries, Democrats should back policies to ensure American energy independence and security.