MORGANTOWN – Sen. Shelley Moore Capito joined with nine other GOP senators at a Wednesday press conference to criticize Biden administration policies that are driving fuel and energy price up, and to unfold in broad terms, without specifics, their own all-of-the-above energy legislation that will be coming forward.
The senators cited figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that predict a slightly colder winter than last year and significantly higher home heating prices: propane expenditures will rise by 54%, heating oil by 43%, natural gas by 30%, and electricity by 6%.
And for folks who have to gas up their cars, they said, the price is up about $1 a gallon over when President Joe Biden took office. The EIA reports that on average nationally, regular gas is $1.24 more per gallon than a year ago.
And, Capito pointed out, overall inflation stands at 5.4%, the highest figure in 13 years.
A large part of what’s driving the costs up, they said, is Biden’s policies: canceling the Keystone XL pipeline while giving a pass to Nord Stream II running from Russia to Europe, pausing the auction of oil and gas leases on public lands, stifling American production through regulations threats against capital investors in prodcution, while calling on OPEC and Russia to increase production for American consumption
“That’s not America first, it’s America last,” Capito said.
Capito was among those who said that Americans – especially low- and fixed-income families and seniors – may face choices between buying food and keeping warm. “It’s going to hurt everywhere.”
Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyo., was among those who aimed to paint a picture of Biden’s hypocrisy: trying to make America look green while at the same time inviting countries that are far from our friends and have far lower environmental standards to increase production.
And why, Barasso asked. So he and other Democrats “can head over to Scotland and wave the white flag of surrender, to take us from being a nation that is energy dominant and energy wealthy to a nation of energy weakness and dependence.”
Barasso was referring to Biden’s plan to discuss the climate meaures in his Build Back Better plan with other world leaders at the UN’s climate change summit, COP26, set to run Oct. 31-Nov. 12 in Glasgow.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said, “That defies commonsense. That does not serve the American people. … It means less energy security, which is a national security issue. It means our adversaries are strengthened.”
Based on comments from Climate Czar Gina McCarthy, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Ak., said soaring energy process should accelerate to global move to renewables. “If this is intentional, I think it is going to be clearly one of the most dramatic and biggest betrayals of working families, working men and women, in U.S. history.”
Sullivan was the first to mention an all-of-the-above plan to come soon.
Barasso said it’s possible to protect the environment without sacrificing the economy. U.S. emissions have dropped by 15% since 2005 while China’s and India’s emissions steadily grow. We need oil, gas, coal, wind, hydro, nuclear. “We want to make sure the American people have affordable energy. We want to make energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can. And we want to do it in ways that don’t increase costs for American families.”
Part of the emissions reduction, Sullivan said, comes from the natural gas revolution. “A big part of our plan is to continue focus on what is working.” We already ship LNG – liquefied natural gas – to many Asian nations, and dramatically increasing those exports “will have a dramatic impact on lowering global greenhouse gas emissions.”
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