Submitted by Senator Roger Wicker
“There is no good reason that our nation should be dependent on foreign oil,” Wicker writes.
Gas prices are rising again, and President Biden’s green agenda is to blame. From his first day in office, the President has made war on U.S. energy production, making it harder to extract, refine, and move oil and gas across the country. Predictably, this has caused repeated price increases at the pump, with gas prices in Mississippi hitting a record $4.50 per gallon in June. Faced with these price surges, the President has refused to rethink his green policies and has simply tried to hide the damage. Over the summer, he went hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia asking them to boost oil production, and he has depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserve by about one-third. Yet even these short-term gimmicks are failing. Our oil stockpile is quickly shrinking, and last week the world’s major oil producers, known collectively as OPEC+, rejected the President’s calls for increased oil output and decided to cut production by two million barrels a day. This means we can expect even higher prices to come.
There is no good reason that our nation should be dependent on foreign oil. Two years before President Biden took office, our nation had become energy independent after taking full advantage of our domestic energy resources. President Biden is now reversing that progress, preferring to buy foreign oil rather than allow our own domestic energy production to thrive. We are all paying the price for this self-defeating agenda.
Biden Weakens America on World Stage
President Biden’s unprecedented decision to drain our Strategic Petroleum Reserve has left us vulnerable to future crises. This oil reserve was intended only for emergency use, but it now sits at its lowest level since the 1980s, leaving us unprepared for a true emergency. This is reckless and creates vulnerabilities that our enemies could exploit.
The President’s war on domestic energy has forced him to adopt a posture of weakness abroad. In July, the world watched as President Biden visited Saudi Arabia on a quest for greater access to oil. While there, the President gave a fist bump to the Saudi Crown Prince but ultimately came up empty. Now, faced again with rising oil prices, he is considering loosening sanctions on the socialist regime in Venezuela in an attempt to persuade them to sell us more oil. This would simply enrich a brutal dictator in that country and weaken our position further.
Biden Wants Mississippi to Look Like California
Above all, the President’s energy agenda is costly and unworkable here at home. Biden officials often tout California, the most far-left state on energy policy, as a model for others to follow. Yet gas prices in the Golden State currently top $6.20 per gallon and in some places are approaching $8 per gallon. Additionally, California’s overreliance on electric vehicles has weakened its power grid, leading to a greater risk of rolling blackouts. Adopting these policies in Mississippi would be unthinkable.
Instead of advocating for a green utopia, Republicans want policies that will simply let Americans fill up their gas tanks without breaking the bank. We believe in restoring our energy security, cutting energy costs, and curbing the runaway inflation that is hurting so many families. This energy crisis is of the President’s own making. Until he abandons his anti-energy agenda, we will all continue to suffer.
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Submitted by Senator Roger Wicker
Guest Editorial
