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Forget Leprechauns, Green Pinch Regardless
Your Weekly Dose of
“Common Sense“ Energy News
Presented by:
The Empowerment Alliance
March 18th, 2022
After heavy criticism from industry and political officials, Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her nomination for vice chair of the Federal Reserve. The final blow came when Senator Joe Manchin announced that he would not support her nomination. In a statement defending his decision Senator Manchin said, “Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs.”
With record setting energy prices, Americans need relief. That relief will come from more diverse and reliable energy supplies, not having our base supply cut off.
Senator Manchin also delivered some common sense at CERA this week in remarks about Federal agencies’ role in helping development. During his remarks he said that the federal government, through agencies such as the Department of the Interior and FERC, could be providing more guidance, but “they’re throwing so many more obstacles.”
Bottom Line: Biden’s agency leaders are making things more difficult for American energy industry and the worst part is that they don’t seem to understand how that is exacerbating the current economic crisis.
Once again progressives are calling for the President to declare a ‘climate emergency.’ Among the issues in the letter to the President they call for him to use executive power and declare “climate change a national emergency and to ban fossil fuel drilling on public lands.”
The letter reportedly includes the suggestion that the President could use the Defense Production Act to “build more renewable energy and heat pumps.” But the President is also getting pressure from Senator Joe Manchin to use the DPA to increase oil and natural gas production and complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline project.
There are many things that the President has the authority to do to help bring costs down for Americans, but declaring a climate emergency is not one of them. Progressives really need to read the room.
Bottom Line: If Biden wants to send gas prices soaring even higher, and his approval rating even lower, he’ll listen to progressive calls to declare a climate emergency and ban drilling on public lands (again).
ABC News/Ipsos published a poll recently that showed “70% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of gas prices.” According to the poll, “The White House faces similarly concerning numbers related to economic recovery, with 58% disapproving, a 12-month high.”
These poll numbers prove that Americans don’t like paying more for the same product and they are holding the President accountable. If Biden doesn’t start listening to common sense and unleash America’s potential, it is going to be a challenging campaign season later this year. Those dismal numbers had a small silver lining as the opinion of the Administration’s handling of the pandemic improved, but overall it is not a pretty picture for Joe Biden.
Bottom Line: Try as he might to shift the blame to Putin, oil and gas companies, or the pandemic, Americans are smartly putting the blame for record gas prices squarely on President Biden’s shoulders.
Another week of record high gas prices have been dominating the news cycle. However, the national average did drop slightly, from $4.32 to $4.29. The Biden admin must’ve learned their lesson last time, as they aren’t celebrating this 3 cent drop.
And for those that need a lesson in economics (looking at you, Jen Psaki), gas prices always rise quickly and fall slowly. So even though crude prices have fallen below $100, it’ll be a few more weeks before gas prices adjust.
Hearing On Energy Security And “Climate Solutions”: On Wednesday, March 23, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing “to examine promoting American energy security by facilitating investments and innovation in climate solutions.”
FERC Open Meeting: On Thursday, March 24, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold a Virtual Open Meeting of the Commission.
FERC Conference On Costs Of The Federal Power Act: On Thursday, March 24, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold a “Technical Conference Review of Cost Submittals by Other Federal Agencies for Administering Part I of the Federal Power Act.”
COMMON SENSE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It’s senseless to risk our energy security and reliability by depending on immoral actors like Iran and Venezuela to produce for us. Instead, the federal gov’t must encourage – not inhibit – responsible oil and gas production to keep America and our allies safe and secure.”
-Sen. Joe Manchin, the lone voice of common sense in the Senate majority, in an interview on MSNBC.
