As the Biden Administration seeks to eliminate or discourage oil and gas drilling, Biden continues his war on the poorest people of the country — the ones who can’t afford pricey battery-run vehicles.
On Friday the Biden Department of Interior released a report on oil and gas permitting on public lands that will increase the price of fuel for everything from cars to heating oil, and also for the myriad of items manufactured from petroleum products, such as shoes and essentials. If America’s low-income people are struggling now, with car fuel at more than $3 a gallon, things could get a lot worse.
The Biden report on federal oil and gas leasing and permitting practices identifies extreme changes to taxes on oil and gas leases, and creates so many barriers for permits that American companies will seek oil in other places in the world.
“This report is exactly what we thought it would be: a series of preordained conclusions that are designed to end federal oil and gas production. President Biden campaigned on that, and his administration is now advancing what amounts to a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy to achieve it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. “What is especially upsetting is that it took Interior 10 months to produce a document that is just 15 pages long, lacking any meaningful analysis, and that repeatedly misrepresents how development actually works. The policies it calls for won’t maximize returns for taxpayers or even reduce emissions—instead, they will hurt production in states like Alaska, further raise energy prices, and increase our nation’s import dependence. This won’t build back any barrels, but it is – yet again – music to OPEC+’s ears,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski’s opponent Kelly Tshibaka was unimpressed: “Do you see how this works? She voted for Deb Haaland, she supports and sells Biden’s Green New Deal agenda then claims she is upset and releases a statement of ‘disapproval’ during an election year. She is failing Alaska,” Tshibaka wrote on Facebook.
Dan Newhouse, chairman of the Western Congressional Caucus, called the oil crisis a self-inflicted problem. “We cannot run on solar energy alone. Nearly one quarter of the nation’s oil and gas comes from public lands.”
But Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland explained that the world is in a climate emergency.
“Our nation faces a profound climate crisis that is impacting every American. The Interior Department has an obligation to responsibly manage our public lands and waters – providing a fair return to the taxpayer and mitigating worsening climate impacts – while staying steadfast in the pursuit of environmental justice,” Haaland said.
“This review outlines significant deficiencies in the federal oil and gas programs, and identifies important and urgent fiscal and programmatic reforms that will benefit the American people,” Haaland said.
The report is the result of Executive Order 14008, which was signed by President Biden in January.
The Department of Interior, in recommending the crushing taxation and regulation of oil and gas companies, says it will continue to conduct “outreach to stakeholders including state and local governments, Tribes, conservation and environmental justice communities, and industry and labor.”
Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg offered an olive branch to the poor people of America on Sunday, saying that people who buy battery-operated vehicles “never have to worry about gas prices again.” He said the cars would save $12,500 in transportation costs and that rural residents who travel long distances have the most to gain from converting to non-gas-burning vehicles, a claim not born out by data.
“If we can make the electric vehicle less expensive for everybody, more people can take advantage, and we’ll be selling more American-made EVs, which means in time they’ll become less expensive to make and to buy for everybody,” Buttigieg said on MSNBC.
