John Barrasso Calls on Senators to Reject ‘Green Ideologue’ Jared Bernstein

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) called Senate Banking Committee members to reject Jared Bernstein’s bid to be the next chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).

Tomorrow, the Senate Banking Committee will vote to advance the nomination of Bernstein and Solomon Greene, a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nominee, among other nominees.

Breitbart News has detailed how Bernstein has supported the Green New Deal, higher gas taxes, and tying Federal Reserve policy to the black unemployment rate.

Barrasso, as the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote to Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) last week, urging them to block the controversial nominee.

The Wyoming Republican emphasized that Bernstein has advocated for the Green New Deal and has opposed the Keystone XL pipeline:

In October of 2019, Mr.Bernstein wrote an article for Axios on energy and climate that praised
the Green New Deal—a plan so radical no Senate Democrats could bring themselves to support
it when it came to a vote that March. He wrote that “Fossil fuels are severely underpriced.”
Because of the policies he has advocated since joining the Biden Administration, Mr. Bernstein
has gotten his wish—higher fuel prices.

The week his Axios article was published, the price of gasoline was $2.74 a gallon and the price
of diesel fuel was $3.05 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Today families and businesses pay more than a dollar extra per gallon. It doesn’t end there.
Heating oil is more expensive. Propane is more expensive. Natural gas is more expensive.
Electricity is more expensive.

During his testimony before your committee, Mr. Bernstein said he could not recall whether he
recommended denying the Keystone XL pipeline a presidential permit. He is on record opposing
the pipeline. In a 2011 blog post on the pipeline, he quoted approvingly climate activist Bill
McKibbon’s idea that “Stopping Keystone will buy time.” If that does not happen, he wrote,
“then oil from the tar sands will flow, and it will keep flowing until we put a price on carbon or
come to our senses, whichever comes first.”

Bernstein argued that a higher gas tax essentially amounts to a “carbon tax.”

Barrasso contended, “Instead of a green ideologue, we need a CEA Chair who understands the importance of, and is an advocate for affordable and reliable American energy—including oil, gas, and coal. Mr. Bernstein’s record clearly is in opposition to this idea.”

He added, “But now that Mr. Bernstein’s wants to be confirmed by the Senate, he has now changed his tune. Your Committee should not be fooled.”