Exclusive — Kevin McCarthy: Biden White House Likes High Gas Prices, ‘Whole Plan All About Green New Deal’

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told Breitbart News that Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration enjoys high gas prices because the Democrats are using that crisis to try to force Americans to accept their radical Green New Deal agenda.

“If you listen to the White House, they say having a high price of gasoline is good, right?” McCarthy said. “Their whole plan is all about the Green New Deal, right? There is a bridge before you ever move from a combustion engine or others. If you have an electric car, you have to charge it. You have to have electricity for it. If you want to buy an electric car, they’re about $50,000.”

McCarthy’s comments came during the latest On The Hill long-form video special, taped in December at an Eastern Market establishment on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. McCarthy in late November set a new record for the longest floor speech in U.S. House history, defeating a previous record by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when he made his case against the now-dead Build Back Better multitrillion-dollar Biden agenda bill. During that speech, he noted that he could not afford a Tesla or another electric car because they are too expensive. In the interview, McCarthy expanded on that by noting the Democrats are rewarding the wealthy who can afford electric vehicles and penalizing working class Americans who cannot.

“I would love a Tesla, but I can’t afford a Tesla. How many Americans can afford a Tesla?” McCarthy said. “In their reconciliation bill, they reward those—and they reward people that already have the wealth to do it. But then they’re punishing those that are working day to day, hour to hour, paycheck to paycheck—they’re making them pay more. So they’re making those families sacrifice so a family making $800,000 a year you’re going to subsidize an electric car for them?”

Biden has hamstrung America’s energy development since his first day in office. Nearly a year ago when he first took over as president, Biden signed executive orders shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline and halting natural gas and oil drilling and exploration on federal lands nationwide. The net result of these drastic policy shifts from former President Donald Trump’s approach to energy development is the U.S. went from being energy independent and a net exporter of energy under Trump to having energy shortages and sky high gas prices under Biden. Biden also allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to open up Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline in eastern Europe, even after he shut down similar but safer efforts here in the United States.

“Energy policy is connected in many different ways. One, with the economy, simply because if you have lower gas prices, people have more money and they have the ability to produce the products here in America and compete overseas,” McCarthy said. “It also has to do with geopolitical. The world is safer when America is energy independent because when America is energy independent we’re not just for America—we are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. It’s also to deal with the environment. A pipeline is the safest way to move it, not offshore it. The other part you have to think is if we’re not producing it, we’re still consuming it. So where are we getting this from? We’re getting it from other countries. We’re getting it from other countries that don’t have the same beliefs that we do. They don’t produce it the same environmentally sound way that we do. When you look at CO2 emissions, America has lowered theirs more so than any other country combined compared to what we’ve been able to do recently. We did it at the same time we became energy independent because we focused not just on natural gas but think of this natural gas produced in America is 42 percent cleaner than the natural gas that’s produced in Russia.”

McCarthy noted that Putin having the pipeline in Europe means he controls the countries that depend on that natural gas for energy.

“Why does Putin want another pipeline?” McCarthy said. “To produce natural gas to Europe, but also to control Europe. He uses the pipeline as control over those countries. It makes him stronger and his form of government stronger, which is a challenge to America and it makes Europe not safe. One thing Republicans did a couple years back when we were in the majority is we lifted the export ban. So, we were producing more jobs in America, and we were producing more natural gas in an environmentally sound way and we started exporting it.”

McCarthy also said that the United States—and the whole world for that matter—is safer when the U.S. is not dependent upon foreign actors especially those in OPEC for energy.

“So your first question was how do we bring more jobs here but export our products? We used to start building ports to import natural gas,” McCarthy said. “When we lifted that and allowed and unshackled what held us back, God has blessed America with a lot of natural resources. We can use all of the above, lower our CO2 emissions, and become energy independent and lower our gas prices which helps the average American. And, not being reliant upon OPEC, makes the Middle East, America, and the entire world safer because of it and more jobs that are created in America. These are good-paying jobs. But when he [Biden] cut the pipeline on those first days, he shut down restaurants, he shut down hotels, he shut down good-paying jobs being laid off.”

Watch the full-length interview with Kevin McCarthy:

Matthew Perdie / Breitbart News, Jack Knudsen / Breitbart News