Ryan Zinke: U.S. Held Hostage by OPEC Because of Joe Biden's Policies

Former Interior Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke told Breitbart News on Thursday that the Biden administration took America from “energy dominance” to being “held hostage by foreign entities for our energy needs.”

“Yesterday, the Biden administration asked OPEC to produce more energy,” Zinke said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow. “The America First policy was pretty clear, it’s called energy dominance.”

Zinke added, “America went from [producing] 8.3 million barrels a day — and declining — to 12.5 million and rising [during the Trump administration. We became the largest producer of energy … in the world. Now we’re asking our foreign allies — sometimes adversaries — to produce more energy when we have it here.”

On Wednesday, the White House asked the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase crude oil production. The Biden administration cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline’s cross-border permit issued by former President Donald Trump. The mostly built pipeline was intended to transfer crude oil from Western Canada’s oilsands to the U.S. for storage and refining. The Biden administration, Democrat Party, and broader left regularly frame fossil fuel consumption as a driver of “global warming” and “climate change.”

The U.S. became a net energy exporter during President Donald Trump’s tenure. “In 2019, total U.S. energy exports were greater than total energy imports, and the United States became a net total energy exporter for the first time since 1952,” noted the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Zinke stated, “[Trump] put the United States in a position where we were not held hostage and we didn’t have to ask OPEC to produce more energy.” He said the Biden administration is in lockstep with “crazy environmentalists.”

“Environmentally, it is better to produce energy in this country under reasonable regulation than watching it get produced overseas with no regulation,” Zinke remarked.

The White House’s ostensible environmental policies compromise national security by increasing U.S. dependence on foreign sources of energy, Zinke noted.  “The Biden administration cancels the Keystone [Pipeline], but supports Russian pipeline. This policy is anti-American, and it puts the nation at greater risk as farther national security goes.”

He remarked, “Why would we position ourselves to be beholden to foreign entities on our energy needs? In the Trump administration, energy dominance was not just oil and gas, it was across the board — it was wind, it was solar — to put the United States in a position where we’re not held hostage and we don’t have to ask OPEC to produce more energy. This is nuts.”

Zinke is running for election to to represent Montana’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.