Republican efforts to blame President Biden’s climate policies for rising gasoline prices and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are unmoored from factual reality, Politico Pro reports. GOP candidates and elected officials claim Biden is destroying the U.S. oil and gas industry and undermining American “energy independence” by expanding clean energy, although the U.S. continues to export more oil and gas than it imports, and became the world’s largest LNG exporter late last year. Republicans like Garret Graves (La.) are also demanding Biden sanction Russian oil and gas exports, which would hurt U.S. allies in Europe and drive global energy prices higher.
“This is the same tired argument they’ve been making for the last several years where we live in this binary world where countries have to either buy our fossil fuels or Vladimir Putin’s,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D., Calif.) told Politico. “In a decarbonized world he is powerless, his country is poor and they’ll be looking for a new leader.” (Politico Pro $)