Tag

Energy

Browsing

(RepublicanWire.org) – Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee issued a warning to President Joe Biden telling him the investigation into Biden’s family business dealings is not going away. He said:

“It’s rich that the president just stood there and lied to the American people. It’s also rich that the mainstream media hasn’t called him out on it. I mean, where are the fact-checkers?

“They’ve gone for years now saying that this is Russian disinformation, that the Bidens weren’t involved in influence peddling. Then when the laptop surfaced, obviously, they said that wasn’t real, that had been compromised.

“Well, now I have subpoenaed bank records to prove that the family took over $1 million from a Chinese Communist Party-backed energy company for no apparent reason, and he’s still denying it, he’s still lying about it.

“So yes, we expect an apology from Joe Biden. We’re disappointed but not shocked that the mainstream media has turned a blind eye to this. But my message to the White House is, this isn’t going away. 

“There are other bank records. 

“There are other potential business quote-unquote “deals” that your family has made with China and other adversarial countries around the world.

“We’re going to get the truth out. 

“And there’s going to come a point to where eventually, the mainstream media is not going to be able to let him stand up there and lie to the American people about the fact that his family has taken millions and millions of dollars from our adversary.

“This is a step-by-step process. I’ve been very transparent with the American people about what the purpose of this investigation is. 

“The purpose is to try to determine whether or not this White House is compromised because of the millions and millions of dollars this family’s taken from adversaries around the world.

“We knew this based on whistle-blowers. We knew this based on text messages and emails. Now we know this based on bank records. 

“So we got our first set of bank records — now that led to the second set of bank records that I hope to getting in hand within the next few days. 

“That second set will lead to the third set.

“And in the meantime, we were able to prove without a shadow of a doubt to the Treasury Cabinet that, look, we need those bank violations because obviously, this family has taken over $1 million from a Chinese Communist-backed energy company for no apparent reason.

“And we’re going to continue to follow the money and try to get the American people the proof they deserve about this family occupying the White House,” he said.

(RepublicanWire.org) – Joe Biden’s energy policy doesn’t make a lot of sense. The only way it makes any sense is if you’re trying to kill the American energy industry. He’s been attacking the energy industry since the first day that he came into office.

That’s part of the reason that the price of gas under Biden hit record numbers. Then to pretend he’s addressing that, he’s been artificially trying to keep the price low by draining our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That puts our national security at risk if there is a true emergency and not just Joe trying to help the Democrats during the election. We could have cheap and reliable energy — indeed we did under President Donald Trump — if Biden just had a sensible policy. But instead, the policy is about limiting our drilling while reaching out to oppressive governments like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to beg them for oil.

Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy was asked about this during a recent appearance on FOX News and answered in a way that only John Kennedy can. The man has a real way with words.

“I used to have a beagle named Roger, and Roger was a rascal,” Kennedy noted. “About every two weeks, Roger would run off — he’d always come back — but about half the time he’d come back dragging roadkill that he would hide under my back porch,” he explained. “President Biden’s energy policy looks like something Roger used to keep under my back porch.”

“It is a fact that America has the greatest, the strongest, economy in all of human history,” Kennedy continued. “We can’t run it without fossil fuels — not today not tomorrow. It is also a fact that, through reserves and technology, America can produce every drop of oil and natural gas that we need and have extra left over to sell to our friends,” he reminded.

“That presents a problem to President Biden because he has embraced the woke or berserk wing of the Democrat Party, and woke ideology says we need to get rid of oil and gas in the United States,” Kennedy explained of his radical counterparts in Congress.

“So President Biden has developed a new energy policy and it is this: Instead of producing at a cheaper cost our own oil and gas in America, we’re going to buy oil from foreign countries that hate us — in this case Venezuela — so those foreign countries will have more money to buy weapons to try to kill us. It’s a moronathon,” Kennedy quipped of Biden and his party’s energy policy.

(RepublicanWire.org) – Sam Brinton, the controversial “gender fluid” official who works in the Biden administration at the U.S. The Department of Energy was charged with felony theft last month after allegedly stealing a woman’s luggage at MSP Airport according to media reports.

Brinton allegedly stole women’s luggage worth around $2,000 from the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport. According to the report, Brinton lied to police numerous times before surveillance footage proved the case. He eventually came clean to the cops.

Brinton is reportedly on leave from the DOE. According to Alphanews: “Law enforcement at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport were alerted to a missing suitcase in the baggage claim area on Sept. 16. The adult female victim said she flew into MSP on a Delta flight from New Orleans and went to retrieve her checked bag at carousel seven.

“Airport records confirmed the navy blue Vera Bradley roller bag arrived at 4:40 p.m. but was missing from the carousel.

“So law enforcement reviewed video surveillance footage from the baggage claim area and observed Brinton removing a navy blue roller bag from carousel seven, according to a criminal complaint.

“The complaint says Brinton removed a luggage tag from the bag, placed it into a handbag he was carrying, and “then left the area at a quick pace.” Brinton arrived at MSP Airport around 4:27 p.m. on an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., but did not check a bag, meaning he had no reason to visit baggage claim, according to the complaint.”

Brinton said when he joined the Biden admin:

“It’s official. As of June 19th, I now serve my nation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy.”

From The Department of Energy:

Sam Brinton serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition (NE-8).

In this role, Sam leads NE-8 and oversees its programs including the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology and the Office of Integrated Waste Management. NE-8 manages ongoing research and development related to long-term disposition of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

(RepublicanWire.org) – Sen. Joe Manchin Saturday demanded President Biden apologize for saying coal plants “all across America” will be shut down, in a scathing rebuke days before the midterm elections.

Manchin said: “President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs. 

“Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure. 

“It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day. 

“Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people.

“Let me be clear, this is something the President has never said to me. 

“Being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting. 

“The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology and it is time he learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences,” Manchin said.

Biden said:

“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 the 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 using the same transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on, we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar power.”

(RepublicanWire.org) – President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the relationship between the price of oil and the price of gasoline is not being reflected at the pump; however, the White House’s official Twitter account sent out a tweet on Wednesday which shows the opposite of what he claimed.

Biden gave a speech Wednesday announcing measures to bring down gas prices and claimed that the oil prices were not reflecting the prices at the pump because of oil companies’ greed. However, an hour before the president’s remarks the White House tweeted a graphic that showed that when oil prices fall, gasoline prices fall.

“When the cost of oil comes down, we should see the price at the gas station — at the pump come down as well,” Biden said. “But that’s not what’s happening.”

Biden indicated that oil companies were choosing to raise gas prices to increase profits rather than help consumers and told companies to reduce the prices they charge at gas stations.

“Bring down the price you charge at the pump to reflect what you pay for the product,” Biden said.

The Biden administration has sold 165 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the explicit purpose of bringing down oil prices and in turn, reducing gas prices. Crude oil prices, which are governed by supply and demand, are the most important factor in determining gas prices, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

When the price of Brent crude oil reached a ten-year high in June gas prices subsequently spiked to over $5 per gallon, according to the EIA. Despite falling for nearly 100 straight days since June, the average national gas price is roughly $1.48 per gallon higher than it was when Biden took office.

Biden has constantly blamed oil companies and Russian President Vladimir Putin for soaring gas prices and fuel shortages; at the same time, however, major energy executives claim that the Biden administration’s negative attitude toward the industry is discouraging investment and production, according to a June survey conducted by the Dallas Federal Reserve.

At Wednesday’s daily briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre  why President Joe Biden thought gas companies would do anything to help him if his administration wanted to put them out of business.

Doocy began by noting that Biden had once again blamed gas companies for raking in record profits while failing to lower their prices to consumers, and asked why an administration that had repeatedly demonized and hamstrung the oil industry believed the gas companies would do anything to help them.

“So, you’re asking oil companies to further lower gas prices. What makes you think they are going to listen to an administration that is ultimately trying to put them out of business?”

“How? How is the administration trying to put them out of business?” Jean-Pierre asked.

“Well, they produce fossil fuels and this president says he wants to end fossil fuel,” Doocy replied.

“So look, you kind of asked me this question yesterday,” Jean-Pierre pushed back. “Here’s what we would say: U.S. oil production is up and on track to reach a record high next year. We’ve seen that from their … when we see their profit margins. They are — they — you know, they — it’s record high.”

Jean-Pierre’s comments came on the heels of Biden’s announcement explaining the administration’s energy strategy, after which he claimed to “debunk” a myth about domestic oil production.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee responded to the president’s claim with just one word: “Liar.”

(RepublicanWire.org) – Biden and his top officials admitted they are keeping gas prices high to force America to “go green.” Everyone from Granholm to Buttigieg said they are using the energy crisis to get more Americans to buy expensive EVs.

But electric cars aren’t as “green” as they want you to believe. Those costly batteries will one day end up in a landfill. On top of that, even they admitted the EV industry relies on a dirty, dark secret to actually work.

They are hoping, of course, you don’t read about it.

The Biden administration admitted that critical pieces of EVs and solar panels are part of a long, dark story of child labor, forced labor and child exploitation, citing cobalt mining in Africa and a polysilicon production in China.

The Department of Labor noted that “40,000 children, some as young as 6 years old, work in cobalt mines. Often working in tight spaces underground without proper safety equipment or procedures, child laborers face serious risks of injury or death.

Biden’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs revealed in a report that the cobalt used in EV batteries made in China is mined by child labor in the Congo.

Children are used to extract the material “under harsh and dangerous conditions,” the report admitted. The cobalt is then shipped to China, where it is used to make batteries.

Chinese firms own, operate, and finance most of the mining going on in the Congo. They know this is going on. Not only does China do nothing, they are bankrolling this child exploitation.

It seems the rest of the world is ignoring them too as the push for electric vehicles continues more children will be forced to work the mines.

“Cobalt is one of the most common materials found in lithium-ion battery cathodes and plays an important role in stabilizing the cathode while the battery is in operation. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies nearly 58% of the world’s cobalt and 80% of that supply goes to China. China is the world’s leading producer of refined cobalt and a leading supplier of cobalt imports to the United States. The mining practices in Congo have been of concern because of a lack of environmental safeguards, labor, health issues, and political uncertainty. These factors may limit the availability of cobalt to the supply chain and increase its demand, leading to rapid price increases in lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt is considered the highest material supply risk for EVs in the short- and medium-term,” Tina Casey summarized from the Department of Energy’s report.

There is a lot of money involved when it comes to producing batteries for the new electric vehicles and children’s rights activists have been pushing to eliminate cobalt from electric vehicle batteries.

The problems with the energy department’s claim that they are “actively developing batteries that use 10% cobalt cathodes” is that children are still forced to do the labor to get the cobalt and even at the 10% mark  the plan is for more vehicles to use the batteries. More vehicles means more forced child labor and that the reduction to 10% cobalt does not actually give an accurate picture of how many children will be used in the future to mine high dollar metals.

Biden’s glorious green utopia relies on the exploitation, abuse, and neglect of children in Africa.

We already knew Biden’s much-loved solar panels (for which he is burning through tax dollars to procure) are made with slave labor in China.

China uses Uyghur minorities as slaves to produce most of the world’s solar panels. Biden has recently committed hundreds of millions of dollars to buy solar panels.

Yet he was the man who signed a law that prevented America from working with Chinese companies that employ slave labor.

Now we are learning his precious EVs are being produced, thanks to child exploitation.

(RepublicanWire.org) – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday admitted that Joe Biden’s ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is actually the Green New Deal repackaged.

Yellen said Biden’s Marxist spending bill will “rid ourselves” of oil and gas.

“The Inflation Reduction Act will put us on our way toward a future where we depend on the wind, the sun and other clean sources of energy. We will rid ourselves from our dependence on fossil fuels,” Yellen said.

The Biden Regime believes California is “in the lead” on energy.

Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday said California is “in the lead” on energy and can “show the rest of the nation how it is done.”

This is the same state that is failing to meet its current energy needs, even asking residents to refrain from charging electric vehicles.

This is after California banned gas-powered car sales starting in 2035.

California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is also begging people to turn off their lights and not use appliances to avoid power outages amid soaring temps.

(RepublicanWire.org) – A federal judge on Thursday issued a permanent injunction that will allow new oil and gas leases on federal lands.

The ruling by Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana came one day after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had kicked back to Doughty an injunction he issued last year to accomplish the same goal, according to The Hill.

Doughty’s Thursday ruling permanently blocks a January 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden that halted lease sales on federal lands.

The order applies to Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia, which sued Biden.

Doughty, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, ruled that Biden’s January 2021 order violated the Mineral Leasing Act and Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by leaving Congress out of the loop.

“Both statutes require Government Defendants’ agencies to sell oil and gas leases. The OCSLA has a Five-Year Plan in effect that requires eligible leases to be sold. Government Defendants’ agencies have no authority to make significant revisions in the OCSLA Five-Year Plan without going through the procedure mandated by Congress,” Doughty wrote.

“The MLA requires the [Interior Department] to hold lease sales, where eligible lands are available at lease quarterly. By stopping the process, the agencies are in effect amending two Congressional statutes. Neither the OCSLA nor the MLA gives the Government Defendants’ agencies the authority to implement a Stop of lease sales,” Doughty ruled.

(RepublicanWire.org) – On Thursday, House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) appeared on Fox & Friends. He said President Joe Biden’s policies are increasing prices in the name of combatting climate change while he “jets all around on Air Force One.” He also said that Biden promotes energy production in other countries that has a bigger carbon footprint than American energy production, “So, it’s Biden’s policies that are increasing carbon emissions and his answer is to try to wreck the economy even more and raise prices on families even more.”

Scalise stated, “The code red emergency is American families who are struggling already, paying way too much at the pump, when they go to the grocery store, anywhere else for all of the high prices that are caused by what Joe Biden’s already done, all under the name of global warming and climate change and the Green New Deal. They are wrecking the economy and raising costs on everybody while the president jets all around on Air Force One. He just came back from Saudi Arabia begging them to produce oil. We actually produce it cleaner in America, less carbon footprint to get it in America than anywhere in the world. If there is going to be oil produced anywhere, it should be right here. And yet, Joe Biden’s shutting it down. That’s increasing carbon emissions globally. So, it’s Biden’s policies that are increasing carbon emissions and his answer is to try to wreck the economy even more and raise prices on families even more.”

He added, “China’s building a coal plant every single week while he’s shutting things down in America.”

(RepublicanWire.org) – The Biden administration on Friday said that it would offer up to 11 leases for oil and gas offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Cook Inlet under its five-year offshore drilling plan.

Over the next five years, the government could complete up to 11 deals to sell drilling rights, or none at all, once a final decision is made, according to NPR.

“President Biden and I have made clear our commitment to transition to a clean energy economy. Today, we put forward an opportunity for the American people to … provide input on the future of offshore oil and gas leasing,″ Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said.

The U.S. Department of the Interior oversees the nation’s natural resources, including fossil fuel deposits and drilling projects on federal land and waters.

Federal law mandates that the government auction off drilling rights for oil and gas only in five-year plans, according to Bloomberg. The Biden administration’s Friday proposal came after the expiry of the current five-year plan. According to Bloomberg, it could take several months of public comment and reviews for the proposal to be finalized.

The Biden administration’s proposal has upset advocates for increasing fossil fuel production and environmentalists both.

Environmentalists have seen the administration’s proposal as backing away from President Joe Biden’s commitment to fighting climate change.

“President Biden campaigned on climate leadership, but he seems poised to let us down at the worst possible moment,” Center for Biological Diversity senior oceans campaigner Brady Bradshaw told the Wall Street Journal.

“The reckless approval of yet more offshore drilling would mean more oil spills, more dead wildlife and more polluted communities,” Bradshaw added.

Since his time campaigning for the presidency in 2020, Biden pledged to make climate change a top issue, promising to bring forth a “Clean Energy Revolution” in the country.

In December 2021, Biden signed an executive order announcing an ambitious climate plan to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net zero in 2050.

However, as gas prices in the country skyrocket amid record-high inflation and the war in Ukraine, Biden has faced political pressure to tame his climate aspirations, particularly vis-a-vis fossil fuels, by raising U.S. production.

According to AAA, the national average price for gas stood at $4.822 as of Saturday, $1.696 higher than the price a year ago.

Some proponents for raising production to counter rising prices include Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. In a Friday statement, Manchin said he was unhappy that the Biden administration had an option of selling no leases in its five-year plan.

“I am disappointed to see that ‘zero’ lease sales is even an option on the table,” Manchin said Friday, according to Bloomberg. “There is already more than enough flexibility in the program to adjust sales later, which the administration has previously taken advantage of to cancel three sales earlier this year.”

“Our allies across the free world are in desperate need of American oil and gas,” Manchin said, according to the Journal.

“At a time when demand is outpacing supply and geopolitical tensions continue overseas, policymakers should be doing everything they can to encourage the development of our nation’s energy resources — not restricting access to the affordable, reliable energy needed here in the U.S. and around the world,” American Petroleum Institute Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics, and Regulatory Affairs Frank Macchiarola told The Washington Post.