President Joe Biden adamantly condemned calls for loosening restrictions on domestic energy prices on Tuesday, arguing it would not help lower gas prices.
“Loosening environmental regulations or pulling back clean energy investment won’t — let me expand. Won’t. Will not lower energy prices for families,” he said during a speech at the White House announcing his decision to ban oil imports from Russia to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for escalating his war in Ukraine.
Republicans excoriated the president’s efforts to restrict domestic oil production, as the average cost of gas reached record highs over the weekend.
The president argued for more electric cars and other policies promoted by the left’s Green New Deal as the solution.
U.S. President Joe Biden test drives an electric hummer at the General Motors Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan on November 17, 2021. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty)
“But transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles powered by clean energy with tax credits to help American families winterize their homes and use less energy — that will,” he said. “That will help.”
Biden spoke of a global consensus together with key leaders in Europe on reducing their use of oil, and said he was working with them on “long term strategies” to do so.
“They have to wean themselves off of Russian oil. It’s just not tenable,” he said.
Biden shared his dream of a future where Americans did not have to worry about the price of gas, if they pursued his “green” energy future.
“If we do what we can, it will mean that no one will have to worry about price of gas pump in the future,” he said, complaining that “tyrants like Putin” were “weaponizing” their natural resources.