Let’s break down some of the biggest whoppers:
1. The administration “destroyed” our energy industry
In a post to Twitter this week, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote that rising prices at the pump during Biden’s presidency “is what happens when you destroy America’s energy industry”—part of a broader argument that Biden is waging “war” on domestic fossil fuel companies.
2. Biden “ended” oil and gas drilling on federal lands
In an interview late last month with right-wing news outlet Newsmax, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine because of Biden’s energy policies, including “ending drilling on federal lands.”
Biden did not end federal drilling—far from it.
Early in his tenure, Biden paused
new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters pending the outcome of a review of the federal leasing program—an action that industry-allied Republicans
falsely labeled a “ban” and falsely predicted would devastate the energy sector.
3. Biden “shut off” the Keystone XL pipeline
The controversial Keystone XL pipeline was a
proposed 1,179-mile, $8.5 billion project that would have transported some 830,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska. Biden revoked a key permit for the Keystone XL via a climate executive order on his first day in office, effectively killing it. Only 8 percent of the pipeline was constructed and it never carried oil.
Nevertheless, Republicans have attacked Biden with falsehoods about the beleaguered project, at times conflating it with the larger Keystone Pipeline system that’s been in operation since 2010 and which the Keystone XL was supposed to tie into.
4. Biden “destroyed American energy independence”
There are many iterations, but the Republican argument is basically that Biden “reversed,” “sabotaged” and “sacrificed” the so-called “energy independence”—some call it “energy dominance”—that the US purportedly achieved under Trump.
“Trump gave us energy independence. Biden gave us expensive gas,” Jordan recently
tweeted.
“Biden’s anti-energy policies have caused skyrocketing prices, ended America’s energy independence, and compromised our national security,” House Republicans
wrote in a post from their official
Twitter account.
Republicans are attacking his administration with industry talking points—and nonsense.
www.motherjones.com