NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today joined Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News to discuss the ramifications of President Joe Biden’s anti-American-energy policies here at home and around the globe.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on Germany’s reversal of green energy policies and Biden’s energy crisis in America: “It doesn’t surprise me at all that Germany is taking this posture. Look, they foolheartedly went in and they killed their nuclear energy. They got way over their skis in this green agenda, and they’ve realized that it doesn’t work. They’re going back to reopening coal fire plants right now. And by the way, Maria, Germany never met its obligations under the Paris Climate Accord. America exceeded our obligations, even though we pulled out of it. So, I think Germany is acknowledging the harsh reality that these green policies do not work. The technology isn’t there, and it’s inherently inflationary, and it’s made a huge national security issue for Germany, for all of Europe, and it’s happening right here at home as well. When [President Joe] Biden talks about inflation here and he’s doing all he can, what he’s done is wage a regulatory war on American industry, particularly on the oil and gas industry. And by suppressing supply with all of these regulations, by killing any incentive to invest, at the same time massive stimulus spending that we saw come through in that March 2021 bill, you know, you’re compressing supply, you’re increasing demand—there’s only one way to go: that’s prices have to go up. And this has been unprecedented 40-year highs in terms of inflation right now. And if you look beneath those numbers, Maria, it’s accelerating.”
Hagerty on the consequences of Biden’s war on American energy: “Inflation is still in the pipeline because these [COVID-19 relief] funds have not yet been spent. So, there’s more stimulus dollars sitting in these state coffers that are getting ready to pile into the economy again. And the Biden Administration will not take its foot off of American industry—more regulations, more constraints. And particularly when it comes to our energy policy, Maria, you and I’ve talked about this before; Biden waged war on the American industry—energy industry—from the day he came into office. That’s had the effect not only to drive energy prices through the roof; you think about what’s going to happen this 4th of July—empty tanks, empty wallets, largely due to the increase in energy costs here in America. But it’s had a broader effect on energy prices on a global basis, and that’s had the impact of benefiting Vladimir Putin. We’re inadvertently funding his war on Ukraine. This has got to stop.”
Hagerty on Biden’s anti-American-energy policies funding Putin’s war machine: “I’m pleased to see more and more people coming out and talking about this harsh reality. Again, Biden is pursuing this theology of green energy, and he’s doing this without any regard to the real consequences. And again, he’s causing massive inflation here at home, and he’s putting us in a position where we’ve got war happening in Europe thanks to these backward-looking policies.”
Hagerty on how the Biden Administration’s policies have precipitated America’s energy crisis: “You think about the investments that have to be put in place to continue to maintain supply here in America. These are 10-year investments, multi-billion-dollar investments, and CEOs and boards of these large energy companies can’t follow their fiduciary duty if they know that the Biden Administration has declared that by 2030, in eight years, they want to see an end to the fossil fuel industry. So, this is a terrible environment for investing in continued capacity. You look at what Biden’s EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] has recently done with the small refinery exemptions. They’ve gone back and retroactively withdrawn 2018 small refinery exemptions and imposed retroactive billion-dollar fines on these small refineries. They’re going to go out of business. So, we’re constraining supply at every point. It’s no surprise that prices are going through the roof, and we’re making ourselves far more vulnerable. So now, Joe Biden’s talking about going to the Middle East to genuflect, to, before the UAE [United Arab Emirates] and Saudi Arabia, to get them to pump more. He’s even sent a team down to Venezuela to deal with [Nicolás] Maduro, an international terrorist and a killer. He’s working on the Iran deal again. And you look at Biden; he’s looking at these international killers and terrorists. He’s looking to other countries that may not have our best interest at heart. He’d rather make us more dependent on them than look right here in our own backyard, where we could launch a resurgent domestic energy production. We could actually come to the aid of our allies, increase our own national security, and make us better allies for them as well.”
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