Dems ignore energy price surge, playing blame game instead of helping Americans

Americans across the country are hurting financially, in large part thanks to policies enacted out of Washington, D.C., over the past year. The result is both higher energy costs in the home and more expensive gasoline at the pump.  

President Biden’s anti-American energy agenda of killing the Keystone XL Pipeline, shutting down oil and natural gas production on federal lands, and attacking the U.S. energy industry has had disastrous effects, and it’s likely to get worse. 

So, while Biden says that he is going to "work like the devil" to bring down energy prices, his Democratic colleagues on the House Oversight Committee will hold a third hearing to try to harangue oil and natural gas company leaders about climate commitments. Never mind that the United States is a world leader in reducing emissions. 

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The House Oversight Committee clearly isn’t concerned about high energy prices—after all, one way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is by making energy too expensive to drive your car or keep your house warm. Why would they hold a hearing like this? Could it be at the behest of some well-funded donors in the Democratic Party? 

And all of this is happening amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which could result in the sanctioning of Russian exports, causing the price of natural gas to skyrocket.   

Why else would Democrats focus on a senseless investigation with no clear objective other than perhaps to create controversy where there is none? They clearly paid no attention during their first hearing with oil company executives last October, when this energy crisis was just beginning. Even the left-wing website The Intercept criticized the first hearing as a giant nothingburger.  

If they want to play the blame game, they should look in the mirror.

It shows they are clearly more interested in landing soundbites about who is doing what about climate change than addressing the high energy costs that are weighing down family budgets and the economy.  

If they want to play the blame game, they should look in the mirror: just one year of unified control of government has put the energy industry and the economy in a more precarious position than we’ve seen in decades. 

In 2021, the average retail gasoline price in the U.S. increased by more than $1 per gallon over the course of the year. In response, the administration released the largest-ever amount of oil barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve last November. How well did that work? By January, the price of crude oil had rebounded to a seven-year high. 

Their latest solution is to suspend the gas tax for drivers. It’s nice to see them finally acknowledge the burden of high energy costs, but that flawed plan would do nothing to fundamentally change the price of gasoline.  

The reality is, the Biden administration has severely limited America’s ability to meet the demands of the moment, no matter how much our best-in-the world energy industry would benefit the consumer. 

With the country in the coldest months of winter, consumers in Iowa, California, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky and other states have been ringing the alarm over massive increases in natural gas bills to heat their homes. When consumers reached out to their energy providers for an explanation of the charges, nearly all had the same explanation: demand is up and supply is tight, making the commodity more expensive.  

This is an avoidable situation. The United States has abundant resources to provide American-made energy to consumers at affordable, reliable prices. Just a year ago, we were celebrating our country’s landmark status as a net energy exporter and a leader in the global market.  

In large part, this victory was due to innovations in natural gas production. These same innovations are responsible for a 32% decrease in American electric power sector CO2 emissions between 2005 and 2019. During that same time period, overall U.S. CO2 emissions fell by 24%. But the Biden administration has spent the last year doing everything in its power to slow the production of natural gas. 

Whether America acts like a global energy leader has far-reaching consequences. Look at Europe, where we are watching in slow-motion the effects of pursuing a "Green New Deal" agenda that neglects economic realities. By banning and restricting the use of coal, natural gas and nuclear energy sources, Europe has put itself in a position of extreme vulnerability.  

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As energy costs soar for businesses and consumers in the European market, the EU is turning to natural gas imports, primarily from the U.S. and Russia. A robust American energy industry paired with smart energy policy would be able to ramp up production and respond to the demand needs both at home and in Europe. But with President Biden hamstringing our domestic energy industry, he is handing political and economic power to Russia on a silver platter.  

These issues are urgent matters of economic and national security. In theory, Congress – and particularly members entrusted with the duty of oversight – should have their hands full. But yet again, Democrats are using their position of power to conduct another out-of-touch hearing instead of focusing on what Americans care about, namely the impacts of President Biden’s "greenflation" on their pocketbooks and the growing threats from our adversaries abroad. 

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