America needs energy independence

Randy Weber, guest column

July 5, 2022

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 12: Gas prices over $4.00 a gallon are displayed at a Shell station on October 12, 2021 in San Francisco, California. The San Francisco Bay Area has the highest gas prices in the United States with an average price of $4.55 per gallon of regular unleaded. The national average is $3.31 per gallon, up 6 cents over the last two weeks and over $1.00 since last year. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Justin Sullivan, Staff / Getty Images

As most patriotic Americans celebrate Independence Day, most face a darker reality of dependence instead. Dependence on foreign oil.Right now, folks across Southeast Texas are paying upwards of $4.60 a gallon for gas. Two years ago, during a global pandemic, that number was only $1.81. President Biden and House Democrats want you to believe that this price hike is due to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine alone, but they are misleading the American people. The real reason that you may have to cancel your summer vacation — rather than spend an arm and a leg at the gas pump — is due to the radical anti-energy agenda that President Biden has been promoting since his first day in the White House.Admittedly, the Ukraine-Russia conflict has put additional pressure on the world’s oil economy. But blaming the war is a disingenuous misdirection: gas prices were steadily rising well before Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration laid the groundwork for these astronomical price increases on day one, and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has only made a bad situation worse.On his first day in office, President Biden canceled the construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. In addition to killing thousands of good-paying jobs for hard-working American patriots, Biden’s pen-stroke also robbed Texas refineries of roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day. Those extra barrels of oil are sorely needed today — for us and for our allies. In fact, they would easily offset any oil we might otherwise import from Russia.Instead of kowtowing to his “woke” base, President Biden must wake up to the reality that energy independence and abundance are the cornerstones of any responsible domestic agenda. President Trump understood this; we cannot say the same about his successor.The prices at the pump are not just a consequence of Biden’s radical climate agenda—but a part of it.In retrospect, rescinding the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline was just the opening volley of a full-frontal assault against the fossil fuel industry, using as its weapons the destructive anti-energy policies promoted by President Biden and his administration. Their war machine has devastated investment in the industry, which needs substantial capital to survive and thrive. The investment required to produce more oil and gas may take 15-20 years to recoup. While President Biden and his eco-cronies remain in power, few bottom-line-respecting CEOs will have the intestinal fortitude to invest in traditional energy projects as long as the destruction of the fossil fuel industry remains a central plank of the Democrats’ political platform.With investment in fossil fuels drying up, gas prices have skyrocketed, affecting folks right here in Southeast Texas. Drivers adjust their spending habits just to afford commuting expenses. But even working more from home does not fully mitigate the consequences of higher gas prices. If the U.S. is not energy independent, it means that we unnecessarily put ourselves back at the mercy of oil-rich foreign autocrats.The Bidenistas have all but dropped any pretense of concern about the crisis at the gas pump. On the contrary, they are fairly straightforward about the moral imperative for the rest of us to just “suck it up” and accept the new reality — that we live in brave, new fossil-free world — until everyone buys (relatively expensive) electric cars so that we can shun gasoline altogether.Just don’t ask these energy absolutists about the source of fuel that powers the electricity-generating plants that provide the much-needed charge for these e-vehicles when they, um, run out of gas, so to speak. If the radical Left felt any allegiance to logic, they would bolster their clean-energy fanaticism by supporting the least emissive form of electricity generation: nuclear power. But that’s another argument, for another time. For now, just ask our neighbors in Matagorda County — home of the South Texas Project electric generating station — about the merits of this energy source. At least they’ll tell you the truth.Going forward, lawmakers must come together, not to merely roll back Biden’s disastrous policies of dependence on illiberal autocracies but to restore the promise of abundant, affordable, and reliable energy produced here in the United States of America.

U.S. Rep. Randy Weber (R) represents the 14th district of Texas. If you have a guest column for The Enterprise, email your idea or the column itself to Opinions@BeaumontEnterprise.com If you have something to say, we want to hear from you!