If you’ve ever seen the show “VEEP”, you know how closely it can resemble reality television (if there were a reality show that featured beltway insiders). Julia Louis-Dreyfus does an incredible job of satirizing a modern day politician, complete with embarrassing gaffes, inconvenient snafus in front of the media, and scandals that diminish political capital in a hilariously relatable manner.

Joe Biden’s Secretary of Energy recently had her very own “VEEP” moment. Jennifer Granholm’s “EV” road trip was anything but “EZ”. This story, while funny, clearly points out the practical application issues faced by those who own electric vehicles.

Granholm is in many ways the perfect person to help pitch the United States’ ambitious shift to EVs. The former governor of Michigan is a longtime EV enthusiast. Her family recently switched from the Chevy Bolt to the Ford Mustang Mach-E.

Her trip through the southeast, from Charlotte, N.C., to Memphis, Tenn., was intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars.

What it did instead was point out several of the inefficiencies of this mode of transportation, according to an NPR reporter who was embedded on the 770-mile trip:

• Some of the chargers were broken.
• Staff used a gasoline-powered car to reserve a working charger for Granholm.
• A family with a baby then couldn’t charge their car and called the police in Georgia.

You really can’t make this stuff up. It quickly turned into more of a second-rate sitcom than a promotional policy tour and not exactly what Granholm and President Biden had in mind when she decided to take this excursion.

The Biden administration has pushed for more drivers to buy into electric vehicles, pumping $2.5 billion into electric charging stations, and has repeatedly publicized its goal for half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030, on the way to a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.
“It demonstrates the importance of the role of consumer choice here for many Americans,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said. “…For most Americans who have to travel long distances to get to work and to school, an EV at this point just doesn’t quite have the technology that Americans want or need.”

Bottom Line: Granholm’s EV trip was meant to be a boost to Biden admin’s agenda. Instead it turned into a real-life episode of VEEP, ending with the police being called for her staff blocking a charging station.

The anti-American energy independence agenda rolls on from the White House.

From canceling oil and gas leases in Alaska to banning the transportation of natural gas by rail, the Biden administration continues to throttle the domestic natural gas and oil industry, while emboldening China and Russia.

Leases canceled

President Biden continued his unabated war on domestic energy last week by canceling the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). This overturned sales held in the Trump administration’s waning days, and also proposed stronger protections against development on vast swaths of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Some Democrats in the state are upset by this decision and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is also furious — and with good reason.

“This is just two of 55 actions that the federal government under this administration is perpetrating against Alaska right now,” Dunleavy said, while adding that Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran are “laughing” at Biden’s energy policy.

That is not the way to encourage companies to invest in oil production in the U.S., particularly on public lands, and much as the administration’s climate warriors may dislike it, such investments are still necessary to help maintain this country’s increasingly frayed energy security.

As a result, a legal battle looms and energy prices continue to climb for American families.

Rail ban

The Biden administration quietly rescinded a Trump-era regulation allowing companies to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) via rail in a victory for environmental groups and a setback for the domestic energy industry and consumers.

“The extended hold of the rule for transporting LNG by rail is disappointing,” Railway Supply Institute President Patty Long said Friday. “Transporting LNG has a proven safety record, and with our country continuing to face rising energy prices, we should be incentivizing critical infrastructure that can provide additional capacity to the U.S. We should not have to rely on foreign sources of LNG to meet demand in certain parts of the country.”

Bottom Line: Making energy more difficult to transport from point A to point B is going to make energy more expensive. This is what President Biden has done by failing to get permitting reform while also banning rail transport for oil and gas.

Wake us up when September ends, because the national average for a gallon of gasoline is once again closing in on the dreaded $4 per gallon mark. Average gasoline prices are up another 6 cents over the past week, now at $3.86, driven by oil prices that have increased to around $90 per barrel. Today gas is about 15 cents more expensive than it was one year ago.

Hearing On Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Program: On Tuesday, September 19, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will have a hearing called “Examining the Biden Administration’s Mismanagement of the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Program.”

Hearing On America’s Supply Chains: On Wednesday, September 20, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce will have a hearing called “Mapping America’s Supply Chains: Solutions to Unleash Innovation, Boost Economic Resilience, and Beat China.”

Hearing On “The Clean Energy Transition”: On Wednesday, September 20, the Joint Economic Committee will have a hearing to examine growing the economy of the future, focusing on job training for the clean energy transition.

Hearing On American Hydropower: On Wednesday, September 20, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security will have a hearing on “American Hydropower: Unleashing Reliable, Renewable, Clean Power Across the U.S..”

FERC Open Meeting: On Thursday, September 21, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold an Open Meeting of the Commission.

“In all their virtue signaling, did Apple commit to stop using slave labor in their manufacturing process or in the lithium mines used for the batteries that fuel their products etc??? Asking for tens of thousands of young children working in horrific conditions around the world!”

— Donald Trump Jr. on X, in response to a new “climate change” ad from Apple.