Energy Independence: Where does America go from here?

Fox Business and Fox Nation teamed up Tuesday to host the Energy Independence Summit, a two-hour event held at Rucci Oil Company in Staten Island, NY, that featured a panel of celebrated hosts and experts in their fields fronted by FBN anchors Maria Bartiromo, Charles Payne, and Larry Kudlow.

Special guests included financial correspondent Jackie DeAngelis and Fox News Media contributor Brian Brenberg, who also serves as the Executive Vice President and Chair of the Program in Business and Finance at The King’s College in New York City. A live audience Tuesday also heard from oil trader and financier Phil Flynn, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, former congressman Sean Duffy, The Schork Report's Stephen Schork, Chief Oil Analyst at Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) Denton Cinquegrana, and the President of Rucci Oil Company, Inc., Roy Rucci.

With gas prices skyrocketing, a new ban on Russian oil due to Vladimir Putin's war, and the crisis in Ukraine still unfolding, the panel of experts dug into the global energy market and how it could impact America's future.

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Rucci, who owns the heating oil, air conditioning, and plumbing company in Staten Island, told Bartiromo his customers aren't just concerned over the recent surge in prices, but "how fast they got there."

Just how quickly did the "price-gouging" Americans are seeing at the pump today, though, really occur?

Jarrett argued it's not the overnight sensation everyone believes — and it's not all about Putin.

"From the day Biden took office until the eve of the invasion into Ukraine, prices for gasoline had gone up," said the Fox News legal analyst.

"The energy crisis is a long time in the making," echoed Flynn, who asserted that the Biden administration "undid everything" the Trump administration did to work towards energy independence.

And it all began with the pipeline closure, Kudlow explained.

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"On his very first day in office, Joe Biden ended the Keystone XL Pipeline," Kudlow told the live audience. 

But the Biden administration maintains the closure of the pipeline, which former member of the House of Representatives Duffy explained is the "most efficient" distribution method, has had no bearing on the nation's skyrocketing gas prices. Press Secretary Jen Psaki made the claim earlier this month in response to Fox News' Peter Doocy's question on why the administration is seemingly blaming Putin for the current, record-breaking rates. 

Psaki replied that "the increase and anticipated continued increase" of gas prices is "a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine."

And while it is true that America has seen a rise in rates since Biden announced sanctions on Russia, including a ban on oil, ‘Varney & Co.’ host Stuart Varney explained why the move has only made an "already-bad" inflation situation "much worse."

"Putin got his leverage…by dominating energy flows to Europe," said Varney in Fox Nation's 'Energy Shock: The Coming Energy Crisis.'

"Energy was so central to Putin's plan that he even dictated the timing of his attack – he knew it was winter; he knew it would be cold…. he knew he could freeze civilians in Ukraine and threaten to freeze them in Germany, in Europe. He was ruthless with energy."

But Putin's flow transcended continents.

"Before the invasion, Russia was sending hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to America. But as soon as the tanks rolled, American refineries started to refuse to refine it; American shippers refused to ship it; and dockworkers refused to unload it," Varney added. "As American companies began refusing Russian oil, the price went straight up. Eventually, the government caught up to the private sector and banned Russian imports."

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"The ripple effects will be severe," he warned.

Just how severe is the question on every American's mind. Especially Rucci's customers.

"They're… concerned about the uncertainty," Rucci told Bartiromo. "Where is the ceiling? It's hard to answer that question to our customers because we honestly don't know."

The resolution? According to Rucci, it's increasing oil production in the U.S.

"That will help bring down the price so that we're not so dependent on foreign oil," he said.

Flynn agreed, arguing that Biden's green initiatives will, unfortunately, "only be associated with pain." The oil expert said the way forward is actually "to get the government out of the way," stressing the need to learn the lessons of Europe and educate Americans about the importance of domestic energy.

"[Europe is] a playbook for what went wrong with energy," Flynn said.

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"Biden wants to double down on green energy, but we're at a point where that's not sustainable,' warned Brenberg, who believes the way forward starts with a "vision of hope," rather than "an apocalyptic vision of the future."

Other panelists weren't as hopeful.

"Biden is the reason why oil prices will be high into the future," said Schork, who argued that the administration is "violating the primary laws of economics."

Schork also called "windfall profits," a proposal by Congressional Democrats to tax top U.S. oil producers and importers and direct the collected money to Americans, an effort they said will curb profiteering in an era of high gasoline prices,"‘pure fantasy." Schork warned that he foresees the national average for gas reaching as high as $4.70 per gallon.

According to AAA, the national average for gas on Tuesday was $4.25 - 64 cents higher than the month before - with states like California hitting a $6 per gallon average.

"I don't think we're gonna get relief at the pump," said DeAngelis.

DeAngelis, who hosts the upcoming Fox Nation special "Bone Dry" - a look into oil-rich areas across the country - said that while former President Trump was making energy independence "a priority" because "he thought it was a national security issue," the Biden administration "has been so hostile to the fossil fuel industry."

"That's how many people see it," argued DeAngelis.

So where does America go from here?

"If Putin thinks he's got a lock on the energy market, he would be wrong," said Varney. "Other producers are eager to fill the shortfall."

And while Schork maintains Venezuelan oil - which Biden recently expressed potentially pursuing in the wake of his ban on Russian imports - is the "dirtiest" in the world, Varney proposed America, instead, dig in.

"We [America] can surely ship liquified natural gas to Western Europe to take the place of Russian oil and gas," he said.

Kudlow concurred. "We are never going to replace oil and gas — let's face that fact," he said during the Payne-dubbed "solutions-oriented" summit.

"Free market. Free enterprise," the FBN host and former director of the National Economic Council stressed. "It always works."

To watch the summit on-demand and learn more about energy from the experts, sign up on foxnation.com today.

To learn more about the energy crisis that's plaguing our country, visit foxnation.com to subscribe and stream related content. With gas and oil prices reaching record levels and the United States recently banning Russian energy imports, many are concerned as to how Russia's invasion of Ukraine will continue to affect the global energy market. Fox Nation's new special ‘Energy Shock: The Coming Energy Crisis,' delivers insight into how the conflict is wreaking havoc on global energy prices and why Putin's most potent weapon is energy.