Biden admin creating energy ‘conundrum’: Canary CEO

Canary CEO Dan Eberhart argued on Monday that the Biden administration is creating an energy "conundrum." 

Speaking on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" on Monday, Eberhart also argued that the administration and politicians in different states, including in California, are "chasing" carbon-free and electric vehicle headlines, while the "science and technology is not really there yet." 

"The fact of the matter is to get through 2021, to get through 2022, and probably to get through the rest of the next decade, we’re really going to be relying on natural gas, we’re going to be relying on oil and to a lesser degree we’re going to be relying on coal," he said. 

He added that he believes the Biden administration "is playing to the far left and the progressives" with his "aspirational energy agenda, but it’s something that voters don’t want to necessarily pay for." 

Before traveling to Europe for the G20 summit in Rome and to Scotland for the COP26 climate conference, President Biden was scrambling to reach a deal on his spending plan, which has a focus on tackling climate change, telling congressional Democrats that the next week of consideration would be of crucial importance, and hanging the success of his administration on the matter.

The president’s social spending package, once valued at $3.5 trillion, is now down to a leaner $1.75 trillion after progressives and moderates agreed to cut programs including universal community college and paid family leave. That bill only requires a simple majority to pass in the Senate because it would be done through a process known as budget reconciliation, but moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they still will not support it.

COAL SHORTAGES PUSH UP PRICES, WEIGH ON ECONOMIES

Eberhart argued that "Biden wants cheaper energy, but he also wants to appease, the progressive left that wants to tackle climate change more immediately." 

"At the end of the day the voters are not ready to pay for it," he continued. "So I think that it’s really a conundrum that the administration is trying to have it both ways right now." 

Eberhart made the comments as the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference is underway in Glasgow, Scotland. 

At the United Nations' COP26 conference on Monday, Biden warned that climate is "an existential threat to human existence as we know it." 

He called for a "decade of transformative action" to "preserve" the planet, saying that "the science is clear."

The president also committed to cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions "by well over a gigaton by 2030," while "making more affordable for consumers to save on their own energy bills with tax credits for things like installing solar panels, weatherizing their homes, lowering energy prices will also deliver cleaner air and water for our children; electrifying fleets of school buses, increasing credits for electric vehicles and addressing legacy pollution."

Biden said it would "incentivize clean energy manufacturing and building solar panels and wind turbines that are growing energy markets of the future," arguing that they would "create good-paying union jobs for American workers."

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Biden and members of his administration have declared climate change a national security threat. Over the summer, Biden warned it would be the "greatest threat" to America’s national security in the coming years.

Eberhart argued that there is a fundamental "disconnect" between "aspirationally where we want to go with energy and what we’re trying to accomplish by being carbon neutral and what the politicians are calling for and what the energy industry can actually produce in the short term." 

"The two really don’t correlate and aren’t meeting," he continued. 

Meantime, a senior Biden administration official said during a press briefing Friday that Biden will ask foreign leaders to ramp up their energy production. 

Some Republicans have taken issue with Biden’s plea to the international community. 

The demand for electricity in the United States is surging, which has driven natural gas prices to record highs and Bloomberg reported that coal miners are "sold out" for 2022 after power producers have signed multi-year contracts for every ton they can get. 

In August, the White House tried to blame OPEC and Russia for rising gas prices after the Biden administration hamstrung U.S. oil producers with policies that hampered domestic oil and gasoline production and asked for the international community to produce more oil. 

President Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline project on his first day in office in a series of orders aimed at combating climate change, which also included temporarily suspending the issuance of oil and gas permits on federal lands and waters.

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Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Ronn Blitzer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.