The Patriot Post® · Hypocritical Biden Turns to OPEC

There’s so much hypocrisy coming from the Biden administration that it’s hard for most people to keep up. It’s certainly true when it comes to the COVID-19 response, and it’s true for energy as well.

The White House released a statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in which he stated, “President [Joe] Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump.”

Sounds like the administration is worried about gas prices that are 40% higher today than last summer. Indeed, Biden’s calling on OPEC to further boost oil production over what those nations agreed to earlier in the summer. But the White House admits that even if OPEC increases production, it still won’t be enough to meet the global energy demand.

There is a solution, but Biden won’t touch it.

Remember the Keystone XL? That’s the pipeline that would’ve brought more than 800,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast states. But newly elected President Biden killed it to prevent “climate change.” He also closed various federal lands and waters to drilling, though he lost an early court battle on that one.

And let’s not forget that Biden also rescinded America’s ability to produce natural gas domestically while turning around and lifting sanctions so Russia could deliver natural gas to Germany via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Americans don’t need to be paying $3.18 per gallon. And we don’t need to weaken our economic and political security by empowering — and becoming more dependent on — OPEC.

“Thanks to private innovation, the end of the U.S. oil export ban passed by the GOP Congress in 2015, and President [Donald] Trump’s deregulation, America has had to import far less foreign oil,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board reminds us. “The U.S. reduced the strategic leverage of foreign producers such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.”

Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said that during the Trump administration, “America went from 8.3 million barrels a day and declining to 12.5 million and rising.” He added: “We became the largest producer of energy in the world. Now we’re asking our foreign allies — sometimes adversaries — to produce more energy when we have it here.”

Fast-forward to the present. The United Nations is warning of a climate catastrophe (again), leftists in Congress are pushing the Green New Deal, and the Biden administration is forcing 50% of vehicles to go electric by 2030.

Biden’s plan to “save the planet” includes asking OPEC countries to pump more oil while tying the hands of America’s oil producers.

Representative Dan Crenshaw claims the move is “not just stupid, but anti-American.” And Biden himself admits the Green New Deal would devastate the U.S. economy.

Actually, the green energy companies and their lobbyists will make out quite well in Biden’s new economy, but those of us trying to make ends meet are out of luck.

At least the administration is honest about something. Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki actually admitted that the U.S. isn’t trying to increase oil production to lower gas prices at home.

Instead, we’re asking for help from OPEC. Fortunately, not everyone in power likes it, and they’re speaking up.

The governors of oil-producing states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Montana, are pleading with the White House to stop turning its back on American workers and energy independence. But why make life better for the American people when you can play politics and shore up the green vote?

Buckle your seatbelts. There’s a rough road ahead. We have a president held hostage by the Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democrat Party and unwilling to do what’s right for American workers and consumers. As a country and as individuals, we’ll all be poorer and less secure. And that’s exactly where Uncle Joe wants us.