Press Releases
Scalise to Biden: Take Responsibility For Your Self-Made Energy Crisis
Washington, DC,
June 23, 2022
Today, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox Business Network’s Kudlow to discuss how President Biden is refusing to take responsibility for his far-left policies that have led to soaring inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. Whip Scalise urged President Biden to end his war on American energy and stop blaming U.S. energy producers for an energy crisis that was created by Democrats’ Green New Deal agenda. Whip Scalise also emphasized that President Biden’s anti-American energy policies have made the United States and our allies more reliant on hostile foreign nations for oil.
 Click here or on the image above to watch the interview.On the need to reverse Biden’s war on American energy:“Larry, first, it's great to be with you. I wish you were still in the White House because when you were in the White House, with President Trump, we were energy independent. We knew what it took to actually not only get our country independent from foreign oil, but to lower gas prices and to create a manufacturing base where we could create millions of good jobs and rebuild our middle class. All of that was happening.“And [President] Biden campaigned – and look, go back to when he was a candidate. He said he was going to stop drilling in America. He said he was going to go after the fossil fuel industry. Many of his top experts said they wanted to bankrupt the oil and gas industry. And then they set out on day one – the day he took the oath of office – they set out to achieve just that – to kill American energy. And it's had a devastating impact on our middle class. “The answer is real clear. You open up American energy. Stop begging foreign countries. You know, he was begging Putin to produce more oil. He's going to get on Air Force One and as he's tilting at windmills here, he's flying Air Force One to Saudi Arabia to go beg them to produce more oil. He doesn’t have solar panels on Air Force One, it's jet fuel. And the price is so high, it's going to keep getting higher because they're cartels, they're monopolies. They don't want the price to be lower.“If we opened up American energy, and he had leased sales, and he permitted pipelines, and he permitted seismic data ability, if he permitted LNG exports, we would see the price lower here and we'd be able to help our friends around the world. Our friends in Europe wouldn't have to be dependent on Russian gas, our friends in Asia. This has global consequences. But, it's crushing middle class families what [President] Biden has done because he's got people running his agencies that are part of this cult religion where they just hate American energy, fossil fuel-based energy, and they're getting it from other countries. They're just not getting it from America, and it's hurting families.”On President Biden attempting to blame oil companies for record-high gas prices: “You and I know, and it's not that complicated. [Energy Secretary Granholm] can pick up the phone and more importantly, [President] Biden should pick up the phone and call his Secretary of Interior and say, ‘Issue a lease sale.’ He canceled the lease sale, by the way, Larry. It was [President] Biden who did that and it's a violation of law. There [are] lawsuits going on right now where the courts have said he needs to move forward with the lease sale, and he won't do it.“He can also approve permits. There [are] at least four LNG export facility permits on his desk that he won't approve. And these have been on the desk for over a year, privately funded multi-billion-dollar projects that would create great American jobs, high-paying jobs, producing energy in America sending it to our friends across the country and the globe to lower energy costs and he won't approve any of those. So, he's the one stopping it.“He blames everybody. He’s blaming oil companies. He blames Putin. He blamed the pandemic. He blamed local gas stations, and he's blaming everybody but himself, but the public knows better. The public has already figured this out. And they know it's [President] Biden doing this and that's why his poll numbers are so low. But he's beholden to this radical far-left who hates American fossil fuels. And that's the problem – he can't stand up to them and tell them no.“So, he demonizes everybody else and crushes middle class families with high gas prices, high home electricity prices, because we haven't even talked about that. This is having a ripple effect on the ability to manufacture and the ability to cool your home in the summer and heat your home in the winter. It's jacking up those prices too on families.”On inflation and gas prices skyrocketing due to President Biden’s big government socialist agenda: “Some of his own cabinet [members] and other executives are having a disagreement with him. You saw [Federal Reserve Chairman] Jerome Powell, you know, recognizing that this is driving inflation. “Inflation will be the number one issue in the election in November and high gas prices are a big part of that because as you're going to the grocery store, you're paying more and that's hurting families. But, when you go to fill up your vehicle and look, over 90 percent of the cars on the road are fueled by gasoline. And so, this idea that everybody can get an electric car, we're going to see an increase in electric vehicles. And by the way, Larry, where do you get the energy for that electric car? You don't plug it into a tree, you plug it into an outlet that's probably generating fossil fuel power and they’re taking that away, and so the price keeps going up. People know that [President] Biden's policies are driving it, and they're angry. They're angry about the border, too. They're angry about parental involvement in kids' education.“All those things work against [President] Biden and he keeps going down that road. They're talking about taking away guns [and] taxpayer-funded abortion on demand. I mean, that's where the Biden Administration is focusing their energy. They should be focusing on American energy and they're not. They're shutting it down.”On President Biden begging dictators to produce more oil:“Unfortunately, what you're pointing out is correct. We've been talking about this for a few months now. [President] Biden's policies are helping fund Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. Before the invasion, Putin was making about $700 million a day selling his oil to America and Europe. We said, 'Look, stop. Cut off that supply.' The ability for us to cut that off is not just by sanctions, it's by increasing production in America because that's the only thing that's going to lower the price. There [are] still – again, monopolies, cartels, OPEC – they limit the production globally.“So, Putin will continue to benefit as long as [President] Biden shuts off the spigots in America. Open up production here and take that money out of Putin’s pocket. Take the leverage away from cartels around the world. [President] Biden won't do it. He'll get on an airplane and go beg dictators. He's begged Putin. He's begged Iran, Venezuela, and now Saudi [Arabia] to produce more but he keeps saying no to American energy, and I think that's what's got Americans irate the most. They know the answer is right here below our feet, unlike the [1970s] where there really wasn't the technology to go increase production in America. Today we do. It's American technology that figured this out. And it's [President] Biden who shut it down.”
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