Ahead of the midterm elections and Republicans expected to retake the majority, the House GOP’s Energy, Climate, and Conservation (ECC) Task Force created a six-pillar policy agenda built on the proven success of conservative energy policies—much like those that made the United States the world leader in reducing carbon emissions while increasing productivity in the first place.
Task Force Chair U.S. Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, recently sat down with fellow Task Force member Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas for an episode of his popular podcast Hold These Truths to discuss the second pillar of the plan unveiled last week: “Beat China and Russia.”
You can listen to the podcast episode here.
For the security of America and the world, it’s time to reclaim our global energy dominance and bring back critical supply chains to the United States. Americans are already suffering the consequences of relying on Russian oil and gas, and China is playing the long game on renewables by systematically gaining leverage to build and deploy emerging clean energy technologies.
“Their entire policy portfolio is a gift to other countries,” Graves said. “And I’d love to tell you that these countries that are being gifted right now are allies, but they’re not. These are countries that all have an axe to grind against the United States, and I have never in my life seen such flawed energy policies.”
Indeed, ignoring routine calls by conservatives to prioritize our energy independence, President Biden and the Democrats are finally seeing the results of their reckless mistakes—but that has not translated to action. In less than a year and a half, the administration proved its hasty all-or-nothing approach is a dead end; thankfully, we know that all-of-the-above works.
Graves emphasized that the Biden Administration’s domestic energy policy is incoherent and attacks American energy independence. Meanwhile, China is reaping the rewards since they are the world’s top producer of critical minerals.
Crenshaw noted the White House recently denied two federal permits to mine in Minnesota and blocked a mine in Arizona.
“The Left loves to talk about more green energy, and more batteries and more of all of these things that require a substantive amount of rare earth minerals,” Crenshaw said, “but they don’t want to produce them ourselves.”
The U.S. must abandon the energy resources provided by hostile regimes, relieve our allies of their dependence on those same regimes, and support the added environmental advantage of bringing more direct energy production home, including natural gas. According to recent polling, most Americans consider natural gas affordable, plentiful, reliable, clean, and an important part of building an energy-independent energy mix for decades to come.
As voters head to the polls this fall, it is clear most Americans favor an all-of-the-above approach to domestic energy production. With the Task Force’s leadership, the groundwork is being laid for U.S. energy independence and positioning our nation to once again be a net energy exporter—while at the same time leading the world in reducing emissions.
Over this summer, the Energy, Climate and Conservation Task Force will roll out policies in six key issue areas, including:
- Unlock American Resources
- American Innovation
- Let America Build
- Beat China and Russia
- Conservation with a Purpose; and
- Build Resilient Communities
