Scalise: Biden's Anti-American Energy Policies Are Causing Gas Prices to Skyrocket

WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), House Energy Action Team (HEAT) Co-Chair Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) at today's leadership press conference to urge President Biden to reverse his war on American energy.

Whip Scalise highlighted how President Biden's conceding American energy independence, from canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and his moratorium on all new oil and gas drilling, have caused a greater world reliance on oil from hostile foreign nations, like Russia. In addition, Whip Scalise called on the Biden Administration to reverse its war on American energy independence and start exporting liquified natural gas to America's allies, so they do not have to rely on dictators for their energy needs.

Click here or on the image above to view Whip Scalise's remarks.

On then-candidate Biden's pledge to gut U.S. energy production:

"Joe Biden's war on American energy didn't start when he took the oath of office as President. I want to take you back to one of the presidential debates when [then-candidate] Biden fittingly was standing to the left of [Senator] Bernie Sanders. If you're looking at the TV, here's [Senator] Sanders. To the left is [Vice President] Biden. And by the way, the policies that [Vice President] Biden espoused were also to the left of [Senator] Sanders. Joe Biden said as a candidate, ‘No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil and gas industry to continue to drill. Period. It ends.' That's what [President] Biden said about American energy as a candidate."

On how President Biden's anti-American energy policies are giveaways to Russia:

"And unfortunately, what we've seen since he became President of the United States was a constant barrage and attack on American energy started with the canceling of the Keystone Pipeline, which was thousands of American jobs. And a great partnership with our friend Canada, that oil was going to go somewhere. And we could have gotten that oil from Canada through a safe pipeline to America so that we wouldn't need to get oil from Russia. But [President] Biden said no, and it wasn't just Keystone. Joe Biden has not approved a single new pipeline in America since he's been President.

"And it's not that he's against all pipelines. As my colleagues have pointed out, he approved Russia's pipeline, the Nord Stream 2, which builds on top of the Nord Stream 1, which was already supplying Russian oil to parts of Europe. We could have been there to provide all of the oil and gas that Europe needs. And instead, [President] Biden turned off the spigots here and sent leverage to Putin. Sent hundreds of millions of dollars a day to Putin to help fund this war in Ukraine."

On President Biden's war on American energy:

"And when we look at gas prices, immediately as Joe Biden said, ‘No,' on federal lands as he promised as a candidate, said, ‘No,' [to] offshore to drilling. He then continued to attack through the regulatory agencies. Just about every regulatory agency out there is going after the ability for us to produce energy in America. And is it any surprise that not long after he did it, you saw prices starting to skyrocket? Not after Putin invaded Ukraine, but well before Putin invaded Ukraine."

On President Biden breaking his promise not to raise taxes on families making less than $400,000:

"[President] Biden's attack on American energy had led to sticker shock at the pump. The pain at the pump is real. And by the way, it hits [the] lowest income families the hardest. When Joe Biden just released his budget last week, he proposed another $45 billion in new taxes on oil and gas. That means families who are struggling already because of all the inflation – not just high gas prices, but inflation because of President Biden's massive trillions of dollars of spending here in Washington that's [raising] the cost of everything – he wants to now raise $45 billion in additional taxes on oil and gas.

"And by the way, unfortunately, the only promise I think he's kept is to go after American energy. He also promised that he wouldn't raise taxes on any American making less than $400,000 a year. Remember that promise? [President] Biden's broken that promise multiple times and the latest of which is in his budget because by proposing $45 billion in new taxes on oil and gas, the people that will pay that the most are low-income families, not the millionaires and the billionaires that he talks about in his speeches. He's going to be kicking in the gut with higher taxes, those people making less than $50,000 a year. They're the ones that are going to get hit the hardest."

On gas prices rising because of President Biden's failed energy strategy:

"Well, he talks about windmills and solar panels and electric cars. We're for all-of-the-above energy, but go look at who's buying the electric cars right now. And by the way, if you bought an electric car today, you can't plug that into a tree, you've got to plug it into an electric outlet that gets power, and most of that power comes from fossil fuels, which [President] Biden continues to attack. So, the record is clear. People get this. As [Conference Chair Stefanik] said, ‘The American people are smarter than Joe Biden gives them credit for.' They know it's [President] Biden's policies – anti-American energy policies – that have led to this skyrocketing sticker shock at the pump where it costs over $150, in some cases, to fill your car."

On President Biden once again tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and turning to America's enemies for oil instead of U.S. energy producers:

"It doesn't need to be this way. We can be lowering the cost of energy not by raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which by the way, the price [of gasoline] today is above where it was when [President] Biden raided it yet again for the third time in his presidency.Let's open up American energy. Let's take power away from all the dictators of the world – [whether it is] Putin, whether it's Iran [or] Venezuela – stop begging dictators to produce our energy when we can produce it right here in America. By the way, cleaner than anywhere else in the world. You want to lower carbon emissions globally? Make more American energy. Make more products in America. Stop attacking American production and American workers. We're calling on Joe Biden to open up the spigots, and we're going to continue as Republicans to push for the policies that will open up American energy and lower the cost of gasoline at the pump."