At a time when gas and diesel prices are causing major pain to American consumers and hitting them hard in the wallets, you might think that Biden would go all out to both ramp up American energy production and convince voters that he’s doing every last thing possible to keep energy prices low.
Shockingly, however, that’s now what President Brandon did during a November 6th speech in which he was stumping for New York’s embattled, unpopular Democrat Governor, Kathy Hochul, at Sarah Lawrence College. Responding to a question shouted from the audience about fracking and drilling, Biden declared himself against new drilling, saying: “No more drilling.”
He then added to that as the audience member kept shouting, saying
There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new new drilling.
And, after the questioner said something about “offshore drilling” in Alaska, Biden said:
No that was before I was President. We’re trying to work on that. Get that done.
Fox Business, adding context to Biden’s comments and how they might relate to rising oil prices, noted that:
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The comments amounted to a doubling down of Biden’s climate agenda ahead on the eve of the midterms despite evidence that it has, in part, contributed to a rise in gasoline prices.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told FOX Business last month that major petroleum refinery snags and policies disincentivizing more fossil fuel production or nationwide refinery capacity have contributed to the price uptick this year.
Making the “no more drilling” comments particularly bad for Biden is that they come right on the heels of his seeming gloating over the shutting down of coal-fired power plants, saying, during his speech about the “CHIPS and Science Act”, that:
And, by the way, we’re investing billions of dollars and many of you are investing billions of dollars in battery technology. We’re now changing the nature of the life of a battery.
Folks, it’s also now cheaper to generate electricity from wind and solar than it is from coal and oil. Literally cheaper. Not a joke.
I was just — and so we can accommodate that transition. I was in Massachusetts about a month ago on the site of the largest old coal plant in America. Guess what? It cost them too much money. They can’t count. No one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it, even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of their existence of the plant. So it’s going to become a wind generation.
And all they’re doing is — it’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money, and they’re using the same transmission line that transmitted the coal-fired electric on. We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar.
We’re also providing tax credits to help families buy energy-efficient appliances, whether it’s your refrigerator or your coffee maker. We’re going to put solar panels on your homes, weatherize your home — things that will save an average, the experts say, a minimum of $500 a year for the average family.
Watch him say that here:
BREAKING: Two days before the midterm elections, Joe Biden clearly states he is for "no more [oil] drilling." pic.twitter.com/2F9hZNOwMt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 7, 2022