You know the world has become topsy-turvy and turned totally upside down when congressional Democrats and Republicans speak as one, agreeing on something as divisive as our energy situation. Last week, Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and Ohio’s GOP U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, both urged President Biden to take steps to stop oil imports from Russia to the U.S., where the president has actually taken severe steps to decrease our own energy independence. And both key Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Josh Gottheimer a New Jersey House Democrat New Jersey chimed in to embrace the proposed U.S. ban on Russia’s oil imports. Said Mr. Gottheimer, “We have the opportunity to cut off Putin’s largest revenue source, to support America’s own energy independence and security, and to work with our allies to stabilize the global energy market to help us mitigate rising energy costs for our hardworking families.” It seems it’s the season to agree on this one issue. Politicians are scrambling to ban the purchase of Russian oil and we agree and urge the Biden administration to go along.
But Democrats are having a tough time explaining to their supporters about the reasons for the sudden explosion of prices at the pump. Understand please, that the days are flying towards Election Day and inflation is sure to be a key issue at ballot time. But the best argument for banning U.S. purchases or Russian oil is to show a reluctant Europe that we are willing to make sacrifices first. The average price per gallon or regular is already a bit over $4 per gallon and climbing. Dems in charge at the WH and in Congress know full well that this will increase the chances of an electoral wipe-out in November. It’s political. In addition, Biden has to finally show he has Ukraine’s interests at heart. He’s already been negligent in supplying them with preventive, defensive weapons months ago when the surety of a Russian invasion was written in stone. He can be a world leader by setting an example for the rest of the world that he would risk election losses due to increased pump prices at home in order to attempt to cripple the Soviets for their murderous rampage into their neighbor’s territory.
But we earnestly call on Biden to review and remedy his decisions to cut our own energy independence from foreign oil by his shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline and reducing our output of oil and gas just when we were actually exporting these resources to the rest of the world, thereby cutting down the power or Russia, Iran and other enemies who compete in this field. Back in January he signed a series of executive orders that prioritized climate change to put the U.S. on track to cut what he claimed were “planet warming emissions.” He also ordered the halting of new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters and began reviews of existing permits for fossil fuel development. His continued the foolish, unscientific support for wind and solar sources to supply our growing needs which will lead to greater imperialistic moves by those nations such as Russia, Iran, China and Venezuela who will bury us with their fossil fuel usage, exploration and export dominance in the years to come. Let this Ukrainian situation wake us all up to the need for our nation to be not only energy independent but the source for such products to the rest of the world.
