Kudlow: Putin is smiling as Biden kills the world's greatest energy industry

A bit of juggling tonight as we open up our show. President Biden is scheduled to speak. Right now, we're tracking it.  If there are any headlines, we will get right to it for you. 

Also, we are grateful to have with us the distinguished Republican Senate Whip, John Thune of South Dakota, and we'll get right to him for comments. 

Let me begin with an abbreviated riff tonight. First of all, as I’ve mentioned before, President Biden's handling of this Putin-Ukraine business has been uncertain, ambiguous, reactive and embarrassing to anybody who believes in "America First." 

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Biden ought to send Putin a full statement diplomatic demarche —not another phone call — but a written statement giving him a March 1 deadline to return the Russian troops to their normal barracks and if they don't, on March 1 the U.S. will impose massive across-the-board banking and energy sanctions. We should've done this six months ago. 

Next topic: World oil prices are surging above $90, quite possibly to $100 or more, but the radical climate people populating the Biden administration with the president's enthusiastic support continue to wage war against all forms of fossil fuels and pipelines. 

Europe and the rest of the world need more oil and natural gas and they need it right now. We've got enough of an inflation problem as it is. So naturally, Team Biden is doing everything it can to prevent this. Of course, they have stopped the drilling in Alaska, stopped the Keystone XL pipeline and jacked up drilling fees on public lands. 

In recent weeks, the fossil fuel jihad has intensified. First, they've pulled the rug out from under the infrastructure bill by stopping the one federal decision, NEPA permitting provision, with excessive environmental and endangered species regulatory burdens. Bridges, roads and highways will be short-changed and new pipelines may be dead. 

Then, Biden's FERC regulator, that's the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, voted on Thursday to press climate regulations and red tape on any new natural gas pipeline projects. OK? So, kiss pipelines goodbye. 

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Also, the SEC is working hard to pressure investors away from fossil fuels with burdensome new climate disclosures and there's a battle royale over the Biden nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin as the Fed's top bank supervisor because she has argued strenuously in public to allocate bank capital and loans away from the fossil fuel industry. 

Then there's the Larry Fink Blackrock story where he and other massive, indexed funds big shots are forcing investors away from any fossil fuel companies, but of course, they're also trying to shift investors to invest in China, their military and their communist party. 

So, the world needs oil and natural gas and Joe Biden is doing everything he can to say "no." 

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Think Vladimir Putin has a smile on his face over this? Yup. Bet he does. 

His best friend is Joe Biden who is killing the world's greatest energy industry here in America with presidential edicts and regulatory czars at FERC, FED, SEC, and elsewhere—and lord knows what else they're cooking up. That's my riff. 

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow's opening commentary on the February 18, 2022, edition of "Kudlow."